NorthBay Healthcare/ Direct Urgent Care Urgent Care Clinic Project Description

Transcription

1 Location: Nut Tree Plaza Suite O-104 Vacaville, CA Request: NorthBay Healthcare/ Direct Urgent Care Urgent Care Clinic Project Description The City of Vacaville to change the Nut Tree Ranch Policy Plan, Land Uses for Area A: Nut Tree Core Area, 2 (g) to allow for Medical uses on the first level during standard retail business hours as per attached modifications. Background: Urgent care clinics are set up to handle minor health issues such as sprained ankles, broken bones, blood tests, colds, flu shots, and other non-life threatening injuries. The Urgent Care Association of America has provided the following key statistics: There are 7357 clinic locations nationwide up 22% in last two years! 34% of the clinics are located in retail shopping centers The millennial generation is twice as likely as other demographic groups to use these clinics Average clinics handle three patient visits/hour or about 32/day 60% of patients have insurance and another 22% are Medicare/Medicaid 92% of patients are seen by provider within 30 minutes Direct Urgent Care operates urgent care clinics throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. These clinics bridge the patient need between the services offered by their primary care provider and emergency room. In an effort to make quality healthcare even more accessible and convenient for the citizens of Vacaville, NorthBay Healthcare ( NBH ) has partnered with Direct Urgent Care ( DUC ) to jointly operate an urgent care clinic. In order to make the clinic as convenient and accessible as possible, the operating partners have selected the Nut Tree Plaza as a highly visible and accessible location with easy access to and from Interstate 80. Proposed Use: The proposed use would be to treat low acuity injuries and exams. The clinic would be open twelve hours per day, seven days a week. With five exam rooms, the clinic would typically see patients per day, with a capacity to treat patients during peak periods. The duration of an average patient visit is typically one hour. Online appointments as well as a virtual queue help minimize wait times and the

2 need for a large waiting room. If the clinic is busy, walk-in patients have the ability to save my spot and are sent a text message when a health care provider is available to see them. In a retail setting like the Nut Tree Plaza, this allows the patient to shop or perform other errands and then be notified when they can be seen. Blog posts like the attached regarding the attached article highlight the consumers need for convenient care given long commute times and other pressing demands on today s households. An urgent care clinic is staffed by a Clinician, a Medical Assistance, a Radiologist, a Physical Therapist, and a Support Staff team member. Clinician staff members either an ER Trained Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, or MD. Additionally, NorthBay may offer other services such as physical therapy, occupational health and primary care. Proposed Project: The Operating Partners have proposed to lease the space located at Suite O-104 within the Nut Tree Plaza. The space is currently leased to Blake Austin Beauty College, but is unoccupied. The proposed 4144sf space will consist of the following: Approximately ten exam rooms equipped with basic medical supplies for the treatment of cuts, sprains, and infections; X-Ray room for the evaluation of broken bones, chest exams, and other internal injuries; Offices for use by clinical staff in the administration of the clinic Restrooms for use by patients and staff Lunch room for use by staff Physical therapy room for rehabilitation of workplace injuries The proposed suite within the Nut Tree Plaza provides adequate parking availability at the east end of the plaza with excellent accessibility via Interstate 80. According to recent discussions within the International Shopping Center Association ( ISCA ), urgent care clinics are rapidly being adopted as an integral component for retail centers across the country. As mentioned previously, patients are looking for the convenience of receiving cost effective care as a part of their daily routing. Combining urgent care within a retail setting creates a symbiotic relationship between the more traditional retail stores where healthcare related traffic leads to additional retail related traffic and vise-versa. The Operating Partners believe that the proposed clinic within The Nut Tree Plaza would benefit the local community through the delivery of convenient and efficient healthcare while also benefiting the retail businesses of the Plaza by replacing a currently under utilized space.

3 About Direct Urgent Care: Direct Urgent Care was born from a vision that people deserved more accessible, efficient, service-oriented healthcare options. Founders Dr. Caesar Djavaherian and Dr. Seth Kaufman, are board certified ER physicians, launched Direct Urgent Care with the vision to emphasize provider-patient engagement and provide an exceptional patient experience. In 2013, Direct Urgent Care opened their first location in Berkeley, and it s success quickly spread in to 3 additional locations in Oakland, San Francisco, and Mountain View. Today, Direct Urgent Care has 4 Bay Area locations with plans to open 4 additional locations in The company features Your Care, Your Choice, offering patients the ability to choose how they access care: clinics, mobile urgent care, or virtual visits. About NorthBay Healthcare: NorthBay Healthcare opened its first hospital in 1959 and remains Solano County's only locally based, locally managed, nonprofit healthcare organization. NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield and NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville are known for providing quality services. NorthBay s mission is to provide Compassionate Care, Advanced Medicine, close to home.

4 10/11/2015 In my February 18th article for this blog, I posed the question of whether healthcare facilities are the new retail. A recent panel discussion sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) provided a resounding affirmative at least for suburban shopping center operators. That program was hosted in Chicago by the trade association for the retail real estate industry, and it included professionals from both healthcare companies and commercial real estate organizations. Healthcare operators on the panel represented commercial space users with requirements ranging from as little as 1,500 sq. ft. to up to 100,000 sq. ft. of gross leasable area. The discussion was anchored by several premises shared by the panelists. First, the mission of the nation s healthcare system is changing from a focus on responding to episodic illness events to a continuous focus on wellness and preventive maintenance for optimal health. Second, and related to this, is a process of decentralization of the healthcare system, a shift which has as its imperative the placing of healthcare facilities closer to consumers, the new terminology for patients. It is this motive that has unleashed a development thrust evidenced by the construction of ambulatory facilities such as clinics, surgery centers, urgent care centers and freestanding emergency departments. And these various forms of outpatient facilities are finding their way onto outparcels and into retrofitted junior anchor spaces in open-air shopping centers and malls. However, larger healthcare facilities within retail settings can encompass 100,000 sq. ft. and more. As a striking example of a regional mall location, I am aware that Vanderbilt Health, a healthcare network affiliated with Vanderbilt University, signed a lease deal for approximately half of the 850,000 sq. ft. at One Hundred Oaks Mall in Nashville, TN. I had visited that mall several years ago and witnessed how it struggled for an identity and viable tenant mix in the metropolitan area. Because medical megatrends are compelling healthcare organizations to think of patients as consumers and customers, healthcare companies are adopting the same type of consumer-centric thinking that has guided retailers and retail site selection decisions. This is superbly illustrated by The Little Clinic, one of the panel participants at the ICSC event. That company was founded on a business

5 model of locating professionally-staffed healthcare clinics in retail stores, thereby providing both convenience and affordability to individuals juggling demands of work and family. Such facilities also addressed a need for a complement to primary care physicians after normal office hours or on weekends. In 2010, the company was purchased by The Kroger Co., one of the largest supermarket chains in the nation, and it has implemented a strategy of tapping the operational and marketing synergies of co-location with a grocery anchor. The Little Clinic now operates 175 facilities in supermarkets located in the Midwest and the Southeast. Given the healthcare industry s new focus on wellness, leveraging the nutritional guidance and support available in supermarket aisles and perishables departments is just one example of the symbiotic relationship between healthcare and retailing in the new healthcare paradigm. I have now worked on three urban mixed-use development proposals that incorporate both supermarkets and health clinics in co-location situations, and I expect urban markets will see more examples in the future. I also note that the co-locating of supermarkets and healthcare facilities pairs two recession-resistant commercial tenancies. In addition, healthcare organizations have a growing customer base attributable to an aging population and increases in the percentage of insured households. As such, the LIVE-SHOP-HEAL paradigm should continue to replicate. Lamont Blackstone, CRX