UnityPoint Marion clinic expanding

MARION - UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine and Urgent Care in Marion needs more space.

The outpatient medical facility, which opened in 2009, is adding 6,000 square feet to better accommodate growing demand for services.

The clinic has family medicine, urgent care, X-ray, ultrasound, digital mammography, laboratory and outpatient physical and occupational therapy services.

'We want to provide adequate access for patients,” said Dr. John Roof, UnityPoint clinic vice president and medical director.

The Marion clinic, 2996 Seventh Ave. Suite B, will expand into the existing Lebeda Mattress Factory space, 2992 Seventh Ave., to add patient care areas and separate the family medicine and urgent care spaces. The new design and expanded areas means urgent care and family medicine patients will no longer share the same waiting area, Roof said.

The expansion is expected to be finished in spring 2017.

The 21,368-square-foot facility also has added three primary care physicians in the past two months, Roof said, and likely will add more.

Roof did not have specifics on the clinic's growth but said the Marion facility along with the UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine-Urgent Care West Side facility are the two fastest growing clinic locations in the area.

The city of Marion's population has exploded over the past few years - it's grown nearly 6 percent since the 2010 Census, rising from 34,768 in 2010 to about 36,774 in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

'The focus is really access and patient experience,” Roof said. 'That's what's driving what we want to do.”