The Doctors Are In New Clinics With Medical Specialists And Family Doctors Are Giving North Side Residents A Plethora Of Options

Barbara Hopkins knew it was time to expand the doctor’s office she managed when sick patients were left standing outside a packed lobby.

A bigger waiting room wouldn’t do the trick. The staff at The Doctors Clinic in north Spokane nearly doubled recently, as young doctors were recruited from other states.

The problem was solved with a new, two-story brick clinic, which opened in August at 6002 N. Mayfair. The $2.3 million building is more than three times the size of the old clinic a block east.

“We just didn’t have any visibility in the other place,” said Hopkins. “Most people in town didn’t even know we existed.”

North Side residents have more choice than ever when it comes to getting medical care close to home. New clinics are springing up as family doctors and specialists discover the North Side, intent on luring the locals who have long crossed town for doctor visits.

“In the past, most of the specialists have been seeing patients on the South Hill,” said Nancy McMurray, who recruits doctors for the Northside Physician Hospital Network.

“In the last year, they’ve been opening offices on the North Side, too.”

Patients are finding advantages to staying in their neighborhoods, McMurray said.

“It’s easy, there’s not problems with parking and it’s close to home. Really they can get almost everything on the North Side except open heart surgery or neonatal care.”

Rockwood Clinic North opened west of the Division Street Y on Country Homes Boulevard on Jan. 2. The clinic spent two years recruiting the 10 doctors who work there, said Chris Eriksen, Rockwood spokeswoman.

Pediatrician Mike Donlan helped care for the 2,800 patients treated in the clinic’s first month. He predicts a steadily increasing flow of patients.

“Pediatrically, we see it as a fertile area,” Donlan said.

Mary Peterson, a northwest Spokane resident, switched to Rockwood North from a South Hill clinic along with Dr. Thomas Witt, who is providing her prenatal care.

Peterson said she likes the new clinic far better.

“It’s newer. It seems like more of a family-type atmosphere,” said Peterson, a 26-year-old account manager. “The parking’s better. It’s just kind of relaxed.”

Van Patten Physical Therapy, located on Lidgerwood north of Holy Family Hospital, also opened a new, larger clinic in June.

“We were in a basement location before with no visibility,” said George Smith, a partner in the company, which has been on Spokane’s North Side for 25 years.

The therapists decided on a larger, 10,000-square-foot building with extra amenities for patients - a spa, gymnasium and swimming pool.

North Side residents looking to place relatives in a nursing and rehabilitation center will have a new alternative when the Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Center opens at Northpointe.

Besides rehabilitation beds, the center will have a 20-bed “sub-acute” unit aimed at people who can leave the hospital but aren’t well enough to go home yet, administrators say.

That center, at 9827 N. Nevada, is undergoing final inspections.

Another Northpointe medical facility, one owned by Holy Family Hospital, will probably be expanded once enough doctors are recruited, said Ralph Gamon, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

The Northpointe Medical Building, built three years ago on the northwest corner of Holland and Nevada, has 14 doctors and could hold four more.

Hospital officials hope to double - then later triple - the building’s size but aren’t sure how long it’ll take to attract enough doctors.

“It could be two years or it could be five years,” Gamon said. “I just never know.”

The building anchors Holy Family’s 11-acre Northpointe Medical Park, which also has dental and kidney dialysis clinics. Hospital officials expect another half-dozen medical buildings to be built there eventually.

Recruiting enough doctors to the North Side hasn’t always been easy, said Jason Sargent, executive director of the Northside Physician Hospital Network.

That network is still trying to recruit five primary care doctors for North Spokane private practices.

Dr. Duncan Lahtinen, who helped draw three new doctors and two physician assistants to The Doctors Clinic, said he’s been most successful at attracting younger doctors who are comfortable working with managed care insurers - a firmly entrenched trend.

“It’s been difficult, but it hasn’t been impossible,” said Lahtinen.

“It’s a matter of selling Spokane. It’s fairly easily sold.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 color)