Baptist Medical Park Pace touts one-stop shop for health care

PACE — Baptist Health Care recently completed construction on its newest medical facility.

The construction of Baptist Medical Park-Pace began one year ago and was completed in two phases.

Phase one of the project was completed in January and included the two-story, 16,000-square-foot complex with Baptist Medical Group family practices and specialty physician offices as well as walk-in care, general surgery, gastroenterology, X-ray and lab services.

Phase two of the project was just completed in May and includes a 7,000-square-foot building that features Andrews Institute Rehabilitation and a Ladies First OB/GYN office.

The medical park measures 23,000 square feet and cost BHC $6 million. The developer for the project was Pangaea Group of Milton.

CONSOLIDATION IN ONE LOCATION

So, how did the project come about?

“Our patients wanted easier access to our various providers from primary care to specialists and other services like X-ray, lab and rehabilitation,” BHC President and CEO Mark Faulkner said. “The completion of Baptist Medical Park-Pace allows us to consolidate those needed, multiple services into one location.”

“We have great quality doctors that care about the community, care about their patients,” said Faulkner, who has worked with BHC for more than 24 years, and has been the CEO and president of the company for five years. “We are hopefully making ourselves more accessible. Health care in the past, we have kind of built ourselves around ourselves; it’s about our schedule, our location, our doctor’s schedule. We changed that, because we recognize that we need to shape ourselves around the needs of the patient.”

EXPLORING THE FIRST FLOOR

This facility is a convenient, one-stop-shop, according to Faulkner. Patients no longer have to travel to Pensacola to see specialty doctors; specialists travel to Pace on varying days of the week to accommodate the community.

The first floor includes primary care, walk-in care, X-ray and laboratory services, with Dr. Monica Nall, Dr. Joshua Davis and Physician Assistant Pat Hill.

The walk-in clinic is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. According to Julie Cardwell, vice president of ancillary services at BHC, the walk-in clinic sees about 100 patients a day on average.

The X-ray wing includes a new X-ray machine that BHC purchased using funds acquired through philanthropy, according to Faulkner.

The laboratory’s services mainly include drawing blood.

“Patients provide a lab slip, we draw their blood, send it to the appropriate lab, and then they forward the results to the physician,” laboratory technician Cyndi Carroll said. “If a physician can’t find the results, we help them with that; if they need more information about a test, we will help them there; if they need certain supplies, we’ll even help them there.”

‘A MUCH-IMPROVED SPACE’

The second floor offers a family practice with Dr. Abby Hunt and Physician Assistant Cecelia Hansford. Each physician has three designated patient rooms; there are nine rooms total, however, only six are being used.

“We have room for growth,” Faulkner said.

Each wing of the second floor has an access door in between so physicians from different specialties can confer easily.

Andrews Institute Rehabilitation is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. This area of the facility houses physical therapy, while other Andrews Institute locations offer occupational and speech therapy as well.

There are five physical therapists at this Andrews Institute location. They offer one-on-one therapy to patients including high school athletes from area schools, according to Brian Guttmann, physical therapist and manager of the Pace location.

“It’s a much-improved space,” Guttmann said. “I’m very grateful for it.”

According to Cardwell, they have been able to hire more physical therapists since the Andrews Institute of Pace moved to the new location at the Baptist Medical Park because there is more space for growth.

All other individual clinic hours within the medical park vary depending on physician availability and day.

MEETING THE MISSION

“I’m excited for the community,” Faulkner said. “I think we are getting closer to better meeting their needs. We spent a lot of time talking to and listening to the community, and understanding how we can better serve – how we can better meet our mission.”

That mission is “Helping people throughout life’s journey.”

“On a personal level, being a local guy, I used to ride my bike from Milton to right here (Baptist Medical Park) years ago … and so you look around and see that Pace has grown, it’s sort of neat,” Faulkner said.

“It’s very gratifying to have grown up in this community and see how it’s changed, and how we can help be part of that process.”