VISALIA – Kaweah Health plans to open a handful of new facilities in Tulare County this year.
Topping the list is a new 13,000 square-foot combination primary and specialty clinic that will be opening on Akers in the former Cigna building. Chief Strategy Officer Marc Mertz said Kaweah has leased the space from Tulare County who now owns the Class A office building. Patients will be able to walk into the clinic on the ground floor located right across the hall from another 10,000 square-foot space in the building the hospital leases for office use.
“We hope to open by June,” Mertz said. “We are working on a new name” in order to retire any reference to Cigna.
Mertz said one of draws of this site includes the need to add more primary care space in Visalia, which he describes as being woefully short of meeting the need. The modern multi-story building – the largest office space in town – will help attract new physicians and graduating resident doctors already here, helping to boost the number of physicians in the area, they expect.
The new clinic, besides offering primary and specialty care, will include pre-surgery testing services (Kaweah Admissions and Testing Services, or KATS), a lab draw and imaging services. Mertz noted they may add more space in the building with another 30,000 square foot space available now that Cigna Insurance has completely vacated the 180,000 square foot complex.
“We should have the ability for us to expand/grow additional clinical space, either by adding Kaweah Health clinics and services, or to sublease space to private community physicians,” Mertz said.
Construction of the space is expected to be underway soon.
Another site Kaweah Health is targeting for expansion is the five-story medical building at 202 W Willow, next door to the downtown hospital.
Services located here or soon will include:
- Retail Pharmacy
- Orthopedic clinic
- New OB/GYN clinic- recently opened
- New pediatric clinic- coming soon
- Outpatient pulmonology clinic (coming in May)
- IQ Surgical Associates- private surgery practice affiliated with Kaweah Health’s surgery residency program and our surgical services
- Kaweah Health Employee Health
- Our trauma administration team
- Small Kaweah Health administrative offices
Then there is construction work to open the new Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit located on 3rd St in the north side of Visalia. Work is already underway to remodel the former Boy Scouts building in Visalia with plans to open by August. The much-needed service will provide 24/7 mental health services for children and youth 21 years and younger.
“Think of it as an advanced urgent care for mental health issues,” Mertz added. “Patients can be brought in by family members, or EMS.”
The new facility will be operated by Kaweah Health, supported by our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship program and physicians. They plan to work collaboratively with Tulare County Behavioral Health. To launch this project, the hospital got funds from a state behavioral health grant that Kaweah Health and the County jointly applied for and was awarded approximately $5 million to purchase the building and develop the services. Ongoing funding will be from the County and patient insurance providers.
Kaweah also plans to open a second rural health clinic in the community under construction now on the new roundabout at the entrance to town.
Lastly Kaweah Health still hopes to open a surgery center at the Sequoia Gateway property on Highway 99 at Caldwell in a partnership with private physicians.
Given their projections for lower expenses and planned expansions, Mertz said Kaweah Health is optimistic that the health care district should be in a more profitable financial position by the end of this fiscal year in June.
