Space, doctors at premium for rising health demands

Patients seem to keep needing more time with their doctors at Carle Clinic.

And keeping ahead of the demand means more than recruiting more doctors, says Dr. Bruce Wellman, the clinic's chief executive. It also means building more clinic space.

Already a health system with 320 doctors and 10 locations in three counties, Carle Clinic recently expanded its clinic in Danville and is growing to 12 sites with two more under construction in southeast Urbana and southwest Champaign.

And it isn't the only health care provider building to meet current and future demand.

Carle Foundation Hospital just finished a large expansion and is building a new cancer center with the clinic that will include a breast cancer research and treatment institute.

That same hospital also has plans for a new rehabilitation institute, and the clinic and hospital are partners in a new heart center planned for their sprawling central Urbana campus.

Among the other big developments:

– Christie Clinic, a Champaign-based health system with eight locations and more than 100 doctors, is poised to move out of downtown Champaign to a new larger campus on the northwest side of the city next year.

– Frances Nelson Health Center, a federally qualified health center that serves low-income patients, moved into a larger new facility earlier this year.

– Bariatric surgeon Dr. Sidney Rohrscheib has plans pending before the state Health Facilities Planning Board to build a specialized surgery center for weight-loss procedures in Champaign.

– Provena Health, which operates hospitals in Urbana and Danville, is considering building a new hospital in Danville, and has been remodeling and adding new technology on both campuses.

Health care organizations say they're building to fill current and future demand. But where is all the new demand coming from?

Wellman says it's not just more patients. It's patients getting more medical care than they used to require.

In the mid-1990s, patients visited their Carle Clinic doctors about three times a year. These days, it's more like five times a year, with demand on physician time growing at about 3 percent to 6 percent a year, he said.

One reason is advancements in medicine, which means doctors can keep doing more for their patients, Wellman said.

People are also taking advantage of more preventive health care services, but too many are suffering from chronic diseases thanks to unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking and obesity, he said.

Another factor increasing demand on doctor time is prescription usage: Wellman said the average patient on a managed-care plan these days takes 11 to 12 prescriptions a year, and patients on medications require follow-up visits.

And make way for the expanding older generation, a major factor driving Carle's plans for a new heart center. The number of adults over age 45 – the age group accounting for nearly all cardiology and peripheral artery disease patients – is projected to grow by nearly 58 percent between 2000 and 2030, Carle officials say.

Last year, Carle Clinic recruited 31 new doctors and midlevel providers to the local area. In recent months, the clinic was looking to bring in 48 more to keep ahead of the demand.

The clinic buildings going up in C-U, set to open next spring, will help Carle relieve the growing congestion at the main Urbana campus, Wellman said.

Part of the plan includes shifting most primary care services that are currently in Carle's south clinic building on University Avenue to the two new clinics – and relocating, along with those services, some 97,000 patient visits a year.

Modern, comfortable new buildings also benefit more than patients – they help significantly with doctor recruitment, Wellman said. And that will be even more important as current and projected shortages in several physician specialties clash with the projected rising demand for medical care as baby boomers age.

"We're trying to spend our resources to prepare for the next 10 to 20 years," he said.