Jefferson clinic places emphasis on family and neighborhood
Miranda Grable, a patient at Jefferson Family Medicine Center, sounds thrilled when she discusses her family’s care at the center. “The overall treatment is very nice, very professional,” she says. “And I love Dr. Patel. He has my whole entire family: my husband, my son, my daughter, my father.”
Grable is one of many local patients whose medical care was in jeopardy just a short time ago when Kaleida Health decided to close its Deaconess Family Medicine practice on Humboldt Avenue. UB reached out, partnering with the company to open a top-of-the-line facility at 1315 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo, last year to sustain medical treatment in a neighborhood where options are few and access is limited.
Rates of diabetes and heart disease are well above national levels, and according to Grable, “A lot of the people don’t have transportation.” Without UB’s Jefferson Family Medicine Center, located just a few blocks from the original site, many in this community would be left without care.
With the new center, not only have these patients benefited from continued treatment from longtime providers, patients have seen drastic improvements in the delivery of their health care. “When we were at the Deaconess Center, sometimes we would have to wait up to an hour and a half for our appointments,” said Grable. “Now it’s down to five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes at the most.”
Vinod R. Patel, Jefferson's medical director, credits the new electronic medical record system with improved patient care. The Jefferson Avenue clinic was the first of UB’s family medicine facilities to use handheld PCs to maintain patient records, and according to Patel, “Our goal is to eventually use completely paperless records to streamline forms and appointments and get patients in and out faster.”
And it’s working. Grable’s two nieces will soon join the rest of her family and the friends she has referred to the Jefferson Family Medicine Center. “We’re very satisfied with the service; that’s why we’re all still there,” Grable said.
The Jefferson Avenue site became the first to hang a UBMD sign on its building and publicly represent the brand identity developed for UB’s faculty practice plans. As part of the Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, this practice has been training medical residents since 1969, making it one of the first three family-medicine residency programs in the United States.
As part of the UBMD faculty practice plans, this site does more than provide care to an at-risk community: family doctors of the future are trained in the running of a community-based practice. “Since we basically operate like a private practice, we are able to give our residents the unique opportunity to learn the ins and outs of keeping a small family practice running efficiently,” says Dr. Thomas Rosenthal, who in addition to treating patients at the clinic is also chair of the Department of Family Medicine. This type of training improves the viability of other small urban centers such as the Jefferson Avenue clinic, and all their life-changing possibilities.
The clinic is the Department of Family Medicine’s fifth outpatient training center and its newest residency training site. The center’s medical staff includes five physicians, three licensed practical nurses, two medical office assistants, and eleven residents. The clinic is housed in a remodeled, 6,600-square-foot former Rite-Aid building in a small strip mall anchored by a Tops Market.
Inside the medical center, a spacious and comfortable waiting room boasts a flat-screen television at one end and large, welcoming reception windows at the other. Beyond those are thirteen examination rooms and one room for on-site procedures such as flexible sigmoidoscopy, colposcopy, cryotherapy, and minor surgery.
The five attending physicians—Patel, Rosenthal, Jeanette Figueroa, Chester Fox, and Sandra Yale—bring a wide range of expertise. “There’s a common misconception that general medicine is not a ‘specialty.’ But it is our specialty. Family medicine is what we do,” says Rosenthal.
The move to Jefferson Avenue came in response to belt-tightening at Kaleida Health, which announced it was closing the Deaconess Center in 2002. “It’s generally very expensive for hospitals to keep outpatient centers open,” says Rosenthal, referring to the subsidized care of under- or uninsured patients. “Kaleida was looking for a less expensive, alternative model. Since then, they’ve partnered with us and with the medical school in coming up with a solution.”
The move to the nearby Jefferson Avenue location enabled most of the physicians to transfer from Deaconess and provide consistent care to the same patients while attracting new ones.
Patel says that the predominantly African-American neighborhood has responded enthusiastically to the new clinic. “Previously, we lost patients because of the long wait to see a doctor. Now, they say how nice it is here, how well people treat you. It’s been a stimulus for other patients to come here.
