Kaweah Health to Open New Primary Clinic

Patients seeking primary care services have a new option, thanks to Kaweah Health.

A new primary clinic will open in a 7,000-square-foot space on the first floor of the Cigna Building at 5300 W. Tulare Ave., Suite 100, Visalia, after signing a 10-year lease agreement with the County of Tulare, which owns the building.

And Marc Mertz, the newly named CEO of Kaweah Health, couldn't be more excited.

"This is going to give us a tremendous advantage in the recruitment of physicians," said Mertz.

Mertz isn't the only one looking forward to the new clinic.

"It's exciting," said Dr. Gaylene Soloniuk-Tays, a family practice physician with more than 40 years of experience who will be moving her practice to the new clinic location.

"You can bring on the doctors, but where are you going to put them? There hasn't been available space." said Mertz. "The design (of the new location) along with the multispecialty component will really help us with recruitment."

Joining Soloniuk-Tays when the location opens will be family practice physician Dr. William Roach, nurse practitioner Andrew Kim, and pediatrician Dr. Ester Flores Midence. But with 18 exam rooms and two procedure rooms, along with an additional 4,000 square feet of available expansion space, Mertz said the new clinic location has the capacity to accommodate more than 20 medical providers.

"It's going to be a one-stop location," said Mertz. "We love the location and the parking. There is no clinic in town as nice as this."

Additional available space would allow for ancillary services to be added, such as a laboratory draw station, x-ray and retail pharmacy, all of which could be added at some point in the future. Mertz also talked about using the additional space for specialists such as orthopedic and general surgeons to see patients.

Soloniuk-Tays agreed.

"It's really exciting," she said. "It's a very central location. It will be much more convenient."

The new location offers ample and convenient parking, a welcome change from the medical offices surrounding the downtown Visalia hospital location.

Additional Physicians Needed Locally

Visalia, and the rest of the Central San Joaquin Valley, is noted for being a medically underserved area, a designation made by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Mertz added that of 50 primary care and medical specialties, the Visalia area is understaffed in 45 of the categories.

"Every three years, we do a study," said Mertz. "Every time we do the study, we are short (physicians)."

As for older patients, Mertz emphasized that providers will be accepting new patients, including those who are older.

"You will have physicians with established practices who are experienced in caring for seniors," he said.

In addition to the new clinic, Kaweah Health has urgent care facilities on north Demaree Street as well as on Court Street. While the location on Ben Maddox stopped functioning as an urgent care walk-in clinic, Mertz said the plan is to reopen the facility under the hospital's license once the primary care practices of doctors Soloniuk-Tays, Roach and Flores Midence have been moved to the new clinic location.

Currently, Kaweah Health has 65 physicians and 45 advanced medical providers working in its clinics, along with 14 behavioral health therapists. It operates six rural health clinics, four medical care clinics, six specialty care clinics and one mental health clinic.

For more information or to inquire about becoming a patient, log onto http://www.KaweahHealth.org/clinics or call (559) 839-2200.