UnityPoint Clinic -- Family Medicine in Cedar Rapids moving to larger location

UnityPoint Clinic – Family Medicine is moving into a larger facility on Nov. 15 to accommodate more physicians, a pharmacy, med lab and the clinic's Patient-Centered Medical Home program.

Medical Home is a healthcare model that uses a team-based approach to give patients more holistic care.

The clinic, located in the medical district at 1030 Fifth Ave. SE, Suite 1400, will move to 830 Fourth Ave., SE, Suite 1. The clinic's phone number will remain the same, (319) 363-8121.

The move means the clinic will almost double in size, increasing from 4,250 square feet to 9,300 square feet, said Julie Zuber, UnityPoint Clinic director of clinic operations.

Transitioning to a Medical Home approach means the 1,300 to 1,400 patients seen each month will receive more complete care as physicians move away from treating just the ailment a patient may be in for, she said.

"The doctor will look and say, 'Is it time for a flu shot, or a mammogram or a colonoscopy?'" Zuber said. The goals of this model are not only to provide patients with better care, but also cut down on the number of clinic visits each year.

The new team-based approach includes a dietitian, a social worker, and a care coordinator, who would handle education around issues like weight management and diabetes, and other professionals that patients may have been referred to see in the past.

"There are a lot of opportunities that we haven't thought of yet," Zuber said.

Employees also will be co-located, with nurses sitting next to the front-desk staff to answer questions about medications or doctor's schedules, Zuber said.

UnityPoint Clinic – Family Medicine is one of the region's first clinics to transition to a Patient-Centered Medical Home approach, she said, but other clinics will soon follow suit. The 18 primary care clinics and multiple specialty clinics in the clinic region will practice this model by 2015.

UnityPoint Clinic is a network of more than 600 primary care and specialty physicians and clinics in Iowa and Illinois. UnityPoint Clinic specializes in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, surgery, cardiology, and other specialty services.