Staff welcomed patients and visitors to the Peter J. King Family Health Center, the new home of United Family Medicine.

Posted April 9, 2009 Last of a three-part series Following a weekend move, the Peter J. King Family Health Center at West 7th and Randolph opened its doors on Monday, March 9, ushering in a new era for community-oriented primary health care in St. Paul.

Staff quickly got down to the business of operating the community clinic and residency program formerly housed in the United Family Practice Health Center (UFPHC) at 545 West 7th next to Mancini’s. While UFPHC remains a legal title, the clinic and residency program now go under the name United Family Medicine (UFM).
 
As before, the clinic is an independent, nonprofit community clinic classified as a federally qualified health center-look alike (FQHC-la), while the nationally acclaimed UFM Residency Program is sponsored by Allina Hospitals and Clinics.
 
“Things are going very well,” said UFM CEO Jeanne Bailey. “We are adjusting and getting accustomed to more space and new flow.”
 
Bailey said patients are expressing delight with the new facility, including one patient who compared it to the previous location this way: “It’s like night and day — calm and peaceful.” Another patient said, “Wow — what a great place.” Still another, “Grande y bonita.”
 
The new building, named for Peter J. King, chairman and CEO of King Capital Corporation — whose King Family Foundation made a $3.5 million lead gift to the $13 million capital campaign to construct the new center — covers 31,000 square feet. That’s double the space of the UFPHC clinic.

Houses 40 new exam rooms

The new facility features 40 upgraded exam and treatment rooms, as well as a spacious lobby that gives patients more privacy in their interactions with admitting staff than in the former location.

In a first for the clinic, the new building also includes a community room for both daytime and after-hours group meetings and workshops. The plan is to collaborate with other organizations to host classes, workshops and self-support groups on chemical dependency, mental health, nutrition, diabetes self-care, prenatal care and more interests.

The new building also includes space to provide in-house dental service in a year or two — after money is raised to buy equipment and hire staff. The addition of ongoing, on-staff dental service will be a significant improvement, because low-income people are “tremendously under-served” in dental care, said Medical Director Jerry Montie, M.D. “If you have no insurance or other financing, dental care is often impossible.”

Until funding is secured, UFM will continue contracting with an independent dental service provider to treat patients on certain days each month via a mobile lab parked by the clinic.
 
The new Peter J. King Family Health Center is worlds away from community clinics of earlier years, yet hews to their tradition of providing health care to all, regardless of ability to pay.
 
“It’s a beautiful evolution from the indigent care clinics of the 1930s, to storefront clinics of the 1960s, to this wonderful building right in the heart of the West 7th neighborhood,” observed Timothy Rumsey, M.D., UFPHC founder and staff physician. “We’ll be able to serve more people and serve them better.”

An open house is set for 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, May 30.