Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009

Staff, patients to move to Modesto's new Gould medical clinic

Medicine has changed since Dr. Ned Gould made house calls in Ripon during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and later moved his practice to Modesto.

Physicians today have more tools at their disposal, as evidenced by the 132,000-square-foot health center at 600 Coffee Road that bears his name and will start serving Sutter Gould Medical Foundation patients next week.

Most of the features in the new center weren't part of Dr. Gould's experience, such as the 64-slice computerized tomography scanner, the healing garden and the espresso cafe in the lobby.

But Sutter Gould officials say the dedication to medicine hasn't changed.

The center was built over 21 months at a cost of $60.4 million to replace the older Sutter Gould clinical building on the site. Next week begins the process of moving physicians, nurses and patients from the older building into the new.

The move should be completed the week of March 2. Sutter Gould plans to demolish the old building in June and put parking in its place.

Sutter Gould officials said the new center is more than 30 percent larger and better designed for the medical services provided there.

A display in the lobby will tell the story of the medical group founded by Charles and Vernon Maino in 1948. Charles Maino married Gould's daughter and the Mayo Clinic-trained brothers named their practice the Gould Medical Group in his honor.

Over 60 years, the practice grew from five to more than 230 doctors working at more than 20 medical offices in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties. The Gould Medical Group merged with Sacramento-based Sutter Health in 1993 to become Sutter Gould.

The new four-story center will have 70 physicians specializing in everything from audiology to urology. More than 410 employees will work at the center.

It has a larger urgent care center, which will be open seven days a week, a more elaborate imaging center, and an expanded oncology and hematology department. It has 151 examination rooms, 53 doctors offices and a small cafe in the lobby selling sandwiches, snacks and coffee drinks.

James Conforti, chief executive officer for Sutter Gould, said the larger waiting areas and other features were designed to create a more pleasant setting for patients.

An example is the infusion area where cancer patients will receive chemotherapy treatments. Patients receiving the intravenous therapy will sit in front of large windows looking into a healing garden. Patients also can watch television or step outside for fresh air.

"It's designed to make it as comfortable as possible during a course of treatment that's not always very comfortable," Conforti said.

The imaging center has the full range of radiology equipment so patients won't have to travel to another location for diagnostic workups. It has five X-ray rooms, ultrasound and mammography units, a magnetic resonance imaging machine and a 64-slice computerized tomography scanner capable of performing virtual colonoscopies or taking pictures of coronary arteries.

The Coffee Road center will serve from 600 to 850 patients per day.

Changes are in store for some Sutter Gould patients in Modesto. Starting in mid-March, parents no longer will bring their children to 600 Coffee Road to see a doctor. Pediatrics will move to the 1144 Coffee Road medical office, which will be remodeled into a child-friendly center.

The internal medicine doctors and nephrologists at 1144 Coffee Road will move to the new center next week. Also making the move will be the family medicine physicians on Spanos Court and podiatrists at the Dale Road clinic.

Sutter Gould started building the center in better economic times using financing from Sutter Health. Despite the recession, Sutter Gould continues work on a surgery center and medical office in Stockton and expects to replace the medical office on Main Street in Turlock. The group is in negotiations to purchase a site for the Turlock clinic, Conforti said.

Any future projects will have to clear a financial analysis before getting approval, he said.

"Although the economy has taken a downturn, the demands for health care have not decreased from what we see," Conforti said. "The current economic environment is causing everyone to look more closely at the deployment of scarce capital resources, and that does enter into the decision-making process."

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or 578-2321.