PAXTON — Gibson Area Hospital plans to expand its outpatient clinic in downtown Paxton to create more space for additional staff and services, officials said.

Meanwhile, talks are also progressing about the possible expansion of the hospital’s newly opened fitness center in Paxton.

“Paxton is a nice, large community, in a regional area, so this would be kind of a new hub of expanded services,” said Rob Schmitt, chief executive officer for Gibson Area Hospital.

To make way for the expansion of the Paxton Clinic at 227 N. Market St., the hospital began leasing a building directly next to it in August. The hospital then connected the clinic to the neighboring building, which has been vacant since the closure of Champion Fitness in May.

Once its interior is remodeled, the second building will provide an additional 6,000 square feet for the operation of the Paxton Clinic, which currently has 12,000, Schmitt said. The work is expected to be done “definitely by the end of February,” Schmitt said.

“The construction company we’re using is actually finishing another project for us in Gibson City,” Schmitt said. “As soon as they get that done, they’re going to come over here (to Paxton) and wrap this up.”

Although plans are still tentative, Schmitt said, the new building will likely provide office space and exam rooms for physicians who will be offering “specialty clinics” not currently available at the clinic; a proposed outpatient psychology clinic for senior citizens; and for newly hired nurse practitioners who will be available to see patients when the clinic’s doctors are not.

Specialty clinics
The proposal to offer “specialty clinics” on a regular basis at the Paxton Clinic has been in the works for months. One of the specialty clinics has already been started, but a variety of others are yet to come.

Dr. Jeffrey Wingate, an orthopedic spine surgeon, visits the Paxton Clinic on the third Thursday of each month to see patients. He has been offering his specialty clinic for two months.

“It’s simply something we haven’t been able to offer before,” Schmitt said. “It’s not that the need wasn’t there, or that there was an assessment of a higher need, but that people who have that need have always had to go to Champaign or somewhere else for that care. So we’re trying to just provide as much as we can locally, and that was a new specialty that kind of fell in our lab, and so we were able to add that over here.”

Wingate’s specialty clinic works like this: “He gets a referral from a primary-care physician for a patient’s back pain or any neck issues, for example, and he’ll see the patient and assess them, and then if they need further treatment or if they might need surgery, then he can recommend what they should do,” Schmitt said.

“We won’t do surgery at Paxton Clinic,” Schmitt noted. “The surgery has to be done in a surgery suite. If they have any surgical needs, he can do that either at Gibson City (hospital) or at his primary offices over in Bloomington.”

Other specialty clinics are in the works. Schmitt said he already has a cardiologist lined up to offer a clinic, adding that “we just need to work on a start date.” Schmitt said he has also been discussing the possibility of providing an otolaryngologist — an ear, nose and throat specialist — at the clinic once a month, or even more frequent depending on the need. Also, Dr. William Price has agreed to visit the clinic regularly to see patients with general orthopedic surgery needs.

Outpatient psych program
The clinic also might also use the new space to provide an outpatient psychology program for senior citizens.

“In a nutshell, it’s group therapy for senior citizens,” Schmitt said.

The program would be similar to one started in November in Gibson City.

“We have six or seven patients in that program already,” Schmitt said. “It’s a program where they come three or four times a week and spend most of the day in group therapy. The psychiatrist comes every Monday to see the patients himself, and then the rest of the time is group therapy with a licensed counselor. And we have a psychiatric-trained nurse that’s there at the clinic, as well.”

The geriatric psychology clinic in Gibson City is operated at 4 Doctor’s Park, in a building the hospital owns that was previously occupied by the practice of Dr. Amnuay Sethakorn, who retired in October.

The timeline for expanding the program to Paxton, Schmitt said, “all depends on getting the space remodeled (in the new Paxton Clinic building), getting that program up and on its legs (in Gibson City), and after that seeing what kind of need there might be for expansion (in Paxton).”

Eventually, Schmitt said, the hospital hopes to be able to offer a full-time psychiatrist in Paxton, who would be available to see patients of all ages.

“We haven’t  been successful at recruiting the physician for that clinic yet, so we’re hoping maybe that if we just start with geriatric psych as a slice of that population, that that might be able to attract a physician to the area,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt said he has been discussing possible collaboration with the Community Resource and Counseling Center, a Paxton-based mental-health treatment facility that serves Ford County residents.

“What we would like to do is kind of work in conjunction with CRCC as kind of just an expansion of the psychiatric services available in our county and our region,” Schmitt said. “It wouldn’t take the place of CRCC, and we certainly are not trying to compete with them. In fact, their executive director and I have had several conversations about kind of the whole psych service line and how we might complement each other.

“Long term, I’d like to see the  hospital and CRCC really collaborate on psych and kind of be a model for providing psych services and health care, and really kind of put Ford County on the map from that standpoint. There’s such a need for psych services in the entire region.”

New Nurse Practitioners
The new space might also be used for the offices of new nurse practitioners who have been or will be hired at the Paxton Clinic. New nurse practitioners were recently hired to assist Dr. Jeremy Henrichs Dr. Bernadette Ray.

“Additional space is important to get them additional room to work,” Schmitt said.

According to Schmitt, nurse practitioners are simply “physician extenders” who can do some of the tasks of a doctor when one is not available.

“The nurse practitioner is fully capable of doing a preliminary diagnosis and assessment and then prescribing some treatment for you,” Schmitt said.

The new nurse practitioners are Brenna Schluter, with Dr. Henrichs, and Karen Collins, with Dr. Ray.

Weekend hours
The Paxton Clinic might also expand its hours to weekends, as well. On weekends, the clinic would be basically a “walk-in” clinic to provide non-emergency medical attention, Schmitt said.

The proposal is “dependent on staffing,” Schmitt said. “Right now, what we’re waiting for is yet another nurse practitioner that will be available to work those weekend hours. That person would just work those weekend hours.”

People in Paxton have requested weekend hours at the clinic, Schmitt said. He hopes it will be a more cost-friendly alternative to residents having to travel to Champaign or Gibson City to visit the emergency room when the clinic in Paxton is closed.

“That’s really the idea, is just having more access, more availability for people in Paxton and the surrounding communities,” Schmitt said.

Wellness center expansion
In a related matter, the hospital is also looking in 2012 to expand the GAH Community Wellness Center, which opened in September in a building that also houses the GAH Ambulance Service on North Taft Street in Paxton.

“We’ve had lots of nice complements (about the facility),” Schmitt said. “I really believe the town appreciates the services there. In looking at the comments and stuff, of course everybody wants more space, and it would  be nice if we had this or that ...

“So, we’re already talking about, you know, how can we expand it? Does it need to stay there or can it go to a different place? Those kinds of things.

“So that’s something that will come in 2012: We will expand that wellness center, either at the site it’s on or at a different site, and that’s yet to be determined.”

The expansion would create more space and might allow for new equipment and the offering of fitness programs like Yoga or Zumba, Schmitt said. It all depends on what the estimated 60 to 100 members of the facility want, Schmitt said.

Schmitt said adding on to the existing facility does not appear likely at this point. The more likely option is to move the facility to a different location in Paxton, he said.