Construction of medical clinic, SIU teaching facility begins in Carbondale
Southern Illinois Healthcare and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine are partnering on a $17 million clinic in Carbondale.
Officials this month broke ground on the 40,000-square-foot building at 300 W. Oak St. The project is expected to take 18 months.
The Family Medicine Professional Office Building will include the Family Medicine practice and also the Physician’s Assistant Program.
SIH is paying for the construction and leasing the facility to SIU School of Medicine at cost.
The family medicine clinic will be located on the first floor and will include 32 exam rooms (seven will be Professional Development lab rooms that can easily be converted to patient exam rooms) and one Sports Medicine procedure room. Staff offices and out-patient labs also will be housed there.
The SIU PA program and offices will encompass the second floor with a 2,500 square-foot conference room that can be separated into three smaller conference rooms. State of the art equipment includes point-of-care ultrasound and three synthetic cadavers.
The growth of SIU family medicine and PA programs provided the impetus for the clinic.
SIU Family Medicine program started inside Memorial Hospital of Carbondale in 1974 and in 1995 moved to the second floor of the professional building. The program has steadily outgrown the space. In the past decades, the family medicine residency program has increased the number of residents from 4 to 6 per year, added faculty and a sports medicine program.
SIU is a hub site for 8 Phase 2 PA students, and 8 Kirksville Osteopathic medical students for their entire third- and fourth-year clinical rotations. The program houses several other learners and educational conferences throughout the year.
Data show that the partnership with SIH keeps young medical professionals in southern Illinois. Sixty percent of the residents and 68 percent of the PAs trained practice rurally upon graduation.
Speaking at the groundbreaking event were Mike Henry, mayor of Carbondale; Rex Budde, president and CEO, Southern Illinois Healthcare, Bart Millstead, chief operating officer, Southern Illinois Healthcare; Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean, SIU School of Medicine; Dr. Quincy Scott, professor and director, SIU Family & Community Medicine Residency, Carbondale; Don Diemer, associate professor and program director, Physician Assistant Program; Dr. Janet Albers, professor and chair, Family & Community Medicine, Springfield.
