Healthcare options in Maricopa increase

Access to healthcare was a major challenge for most of Maricopa’s first decade as a city. As the city prepares to celebrate its 11th birthday on Oct. 15, the location and expansion of reputable healthcare companies in Maricopa is turning that liability into a strength for the community.

“As the community continues to grow we become a viable location for more specialty services,” said Micah Miranda, Maricopa’s economic development director. “The current healthcare providers we have are dedicated to the community and provide a very valuable service.”

Sun Life Family Health Center

Sun Life Family Health Center, located at 44765 W. Hathaway Ave. since 1980, will be moving into a building under construction on Bowlin Road east of John Wayne Parkway next year.

Sun Life will expand from its current 3,400-square-foot building to an 11,200-square-foot facility.

“The current building was built when there were 4,000 residents in Maricopa,” said Kim Collins, director of operations. “The increasing size of the city and demand for services prompted the expansion.”

“In the last fiscal year from June of 2013 until May of 2014 we serviced 2,418 patients and had 7,767 patient visits,” said Renee Louzon-Benn, Sun Life’s director of community outreach.

Collins said the new building will allow Sun Life to double its family-practice providers to four and add pediatric services.

“We will be converting the current facility into an Obstetrical/Gynecological practice,” Collins said.

Sun Life expects its new clinic to open in May 2015.

Banner Health Center

Banner Health opened the first phase of its Maricopa clinic at 17900 N. Porter Road in 2012.

Its 37-person staff is made up of two nurses, eight physicians and 27 support staff. It offers three practices: OBGYN, pediatrics, and family practice / internal medicine.

“We like to tell people we are really just a big doctor’s office with three practitioners under one roof,” said Bernice Berry, senior manager at the practice. “People see the name Banner and associate it with a hospital.”

“We are looking to add physicians and are in the beginning stages of adding another OB/GYN and pediatrician,” Berry said.

The center offers traditional medical doctors and osteopathic physicians.

Berry said the center is planning to offer a complete ultrasound so future parents can learn the sex of their baby onsite.

Banner Health Center Maricopa services 2,500 to 3,000 people a month and typically receives 1,800 to 2,000 phone calls a week.

“Each physician sees about 20 patients a day,” Berry said. “In addition to Maricopa, we have people that come from Stanfield, Casa Grande and even a few from the Phoenix area.”

Berry said the practice is still growing rapidly and is here to serve Maricopa’s long-term needs.

“Our building is already built to add an additional 16 exam rooms by completing the inside portion of east end of the building,” Berry said. “The building is also equipped for a second floor.”

There are no immediate plans for expansion.

Banner did expand its services this year with the acquisition of Casa Grande Regional Medical Center.

Banner Health purchased the hospital in February for $87 million after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“One of the reasons Casa Grande Regional sought a partner is because financially we were having such a problem with bed debt and uncompensated care like many other Arizona hospitals, so we didn’t have any dollars in our budget for capital replacements,” CEO Rona Curphy said. “We would spend money to fix things if they were broke, but we weren’t exploring how we could improve out facility and services because we just didn’t have the funds to do that.”

Banner Health took over management of the hospital in June.

Curphy said a large part of the hospital’s transition to becoming a Banner facility is developing a campus master plan.

“This is a roadmap that is being developed for the next five to 10 years to determine what our hospital should become and what our areas of growth are going to be,” Curphy said.

Curphy said the hospital has seen almost 7,000 patients in the past fiscal year, and they are anticipating those numbers to increase.

“We probably get between 5 to 7 percent of the people that we service that are from Maricopa,” Curphy said. “We are hoping to continue to enhance our services so that people from Maricopa want to come to Banner Casa Grande instead of going to Banner Desert in Mesa. We want to keep them closer to home, while giving them high quality care.”

Among the hospital’s 780 employees are 167 physicians representing more than 30 medical specialties and other acute and ancillary services including neurological and cancer treatments.

Dignity Health

Dignity Health continues to increase its stake in the Maricopa healthcare market. Dignity, the nation’s fifth largest health system, purchased 18.5 acres in 2012. In 2013 it opened Dignity Health Urgent Care.
Demand from its urgent care prompted the opening of primary care services, Dignity Health Medical Group, in August.

“Maricopa is an important market to Dignity Health and one we have been proud to serve for many years,” spokeswoman Lynne Reaves said.

Dignity owns Chandler Regional Medical Center, which in August unveiled a new, five-story tower with six operating rooms, an intensive care unit and an expanded emergency department. The $125 million expansion brings the hospital’s bed count to 339.

“We’re bringing types of advanced medical care to the East Valley that haven’t been offered before,” said CEO Tim Bricker. “Chandler Regional’s new tower will help us meet the growing demands of the communities we serve, including Maricopa.”

Reaves said development of the land Dignity purchased two years ago, on the east side of John Wayne Parkway north of Smith-Enke Road, will likely commence in 18 to 24 months.

“Dignity Health is excited to grow with Maricopa and will plan services around this property to better meet the needs of Maricopa residents,” Reaves said. “Potential services could include emergency services, primary care, specialty clinics such as cardiology or orthopedics, diagnostic imaging and more.”