Published on February 19, 2009
Primary Care Expansion
Contact Name: Mary Barker or Brenda Moore
Contact Phone: 831-625-4505
Email: Mary.Barker@chomp.org
MONTEREY, Calif. - Marina and Carmel residents who have had trouble finding doctors will have greater access to healthcare through major new ventures by Community Hospitalof the Monterey Peninsula.
In Marina, Community Hospital is developing a 27,500-square-foot project that will include primary care and urgent care, a satellite lab, and some imaging services. The site is near the southeast corner of Imjin Parkway and 2nd Avenue, across from the Dunes of Monterey Bay shopping center that includes REI and Target. The nine-acre parcel includes room for expansion.
In Carmel, Community Hospital is developing a 7,269-square-foot project that will provide primary care, a satellite lab, and some imaging services. The site is in the Crossroads Shopping Village, between Longs Drugs and Safeway.
The centers will each be staffed by four to six primary care doctors, some already practicing in the area.
"Community Hospital's mission is to identify and meet the changing healthcare needs of the people of the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities," says Dr. Steven Packer, president and CEO. "These two projects will help fill gaps in the healthcare system by making it easier for residents to receive a range of care closer to home."
The addition of primary care doctors in both communities is significant because the number practicing in that field is declining rapidly, locally and across the country.
In the last three years, the number of community-based primary care doctors who can also care for patients at Community Hospital has plummeted from 49 to 33 - and most of those have limits on accepting new patients. One-third aren't taking any new patients at all, and more than half are restricting who they will see by not accepting certain insurance. Because government reimbursement rates are so low, fewer still are taking new Medicare patients, making the physician shortage particularly acute for those over age 65.
"Being able to establish a relationship with a primary care doctor is important," says Packer, "because it helps people stay on top of their medical needs and keep small issues from growing into larger ones."
Increasing the number of primary care doctors is especially critical in Marina, which anticipates significant population growth - 45 percent between 2005 and 2015. Even with the current population, residents face challenges getting access to healthcare.
A 2007 community health assessment found that nearly 11 percent of Marina residents surveyed visited an emergency department more than once in the previous year - double the rate of the rest of the Peninsula . That figure should be reduced by more convenient access to primary care doctors and urgent care, which should result in lower healthcare costs for patients.
The community health assessment also found that transportation issues and inconvenient hours hindered doctor visits by Marina residents to a greater degree than other Peninsula residents. Having healthcare services closer to home should reduce those obstacles.
Community Hospital's Marina venture builds on community ties that already run deep. Of Marina residents who needed hospital care in 2007, 61 percent chose Community Hospital. The hospital also has a more personal connection: 15 percent of its staff members, or 355 people, live in Marina. Those employees and their families make up almost 5 percent of the city's population.
The new primary care/urgent care center is the latest investment Community Hospital is making in healthcare outreach in the Marina area. Between 1999 and 2008, Community Hospital provided average annual funding of $111,500 for the Monterey County-run health clinics in Marina and Seaside.
In a new initiative, the hospital is working with Marina's public library, a source of great pride for the city, to provide a grant to build up its collection of health-related resources. Community Hospital also plans to provide healthcare education in the community, through lectures, programs, and special events.
"We look forward to strengthening our connection with Marina and to addressing some areas of need identified by its residents," Packer says.
Construction on the Marina center is expected to begin soon after permits are issued by the city, with an anticipated opening in 2011.
The Carmel facility is further along, with a targeted opening in the summer of 2009.
View photos and maps.
Community Hospital also has a longstanding relationship with Carmel and its residents. Carmel's Peninsula Community Hospital was renamed Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula shortly before it was relocated to its current home in Monterey.
Today, it is the hospital of choice for Carmel residents: 85 percent who needed hospital care in 2007 turned to Community Hospital.
While Carmel residents indicated in the community health assessment that they have relatively good access to healthcare, the new center will bring the care even closer to home and address the growing shortage of physicians willing to see Medicare patients.
More than 2,200 Carmel residents are eligible for Medicare and they must compete with other Peninsula residents for access.
"We're pleased that the majority of Carmel residents consider their local healthcare access very good and hope we can make it even better," Packer says.
The centers will operate under the name Peninsula Primary CareTM, a new subsidiary of Community Hospital Foundation, the nonprofit parent company of Community Hospital. Carlotta A. Gabard has been named executive director of both centers. Gabard has held a range of healthcare management positions, most recently as executive director of Ann Arbor Area Health Information Exchange in Michigan. She has a doctorate in public health and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, founded in 1934 and located at 23625 Holman Highway in Monterey, has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. It is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 205 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through 15 locations, including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility, Hospice of the Central Coast, and business offices.
