Medical offices vacated last year on Dixie Highway are open again, and the new tenants are familiar with the place.
Dr. James O’Neill and Dr. Tim O’Neill of Clarkston Medical Group have returned, now as volunteers with Doctors’ Hospital of Michigan.
“Establishing a center here enables us to treat a group of the population falling through the cracks,” Tim said. “We were looking to partner with someone and Doctors’ Hospital stepped up.”
“In bad economic times, we won’t turn our backs on 50 years of service,” James said. “People need us. We’ll be there for them.”
Clarkston Medical Group doctors are part of McLaren Healthcare Village on Sashabaw Road, but volunteer with DHM Family Medicine Center of Pontiac.
The new Clarkston Family Health Center treats patients, walk-in and appointments, for family healthcare needs such as vaccinations, physicals, and check-ups. The center accepts a wide variety of insurances, as well as Medicare and Medicaid.
“It’s going well, picking up day to day,” said Clarence Sevillian, president and CEO of Doctors’ Hospital.
Benefits of reusing the space include familiarity and convenience for doctors and patients, said Dr. Robert Barnes, DO, also volunteering at the center.
“We were looking for a location, and this fits,” Barnes said. “It’s a good space, well known to the community.”
Goals include affiliating with medical schools to make the facility a teaching hospital, and working with more medical specialists.
“More and more specialists are agreeing to see patients, which is a big plus,” James said. “This wouldn’t be possible with just McLaren or Doctors? Hospital, but it’s possible together, cutting through the red tape and making it happen.”
The center provides a healthcare option for underinsured working poor and indigent, but is open to all, James said.
“It’s a first-rate hospital, with high-quality medical care,” he said. “I’m very happy with it.?
“The economy is difficult, leaving a large chunk of population financially challenged,” Tim said. “The need exists in Clarkston, a lot more than people realize.”
The doctors are also watching with interest the federal government’s efforts to reform healthcare.
“We don’t know what’s coming,” Tim said. “There’ll be significant health care reform, but we don’t know what that means. We’ll keep our options open.”
For James, the most effective reform would be to allow individuals to control their own healthcare funds.
“The private sector does better than the public sector,” he said. “Government healthcare could change everything, every facet of American life.”
The 6,000-square-foot center, 6770 Dixie Highway, Suite 200, is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
DHM also runs one of its other subsidiaries, Clarkston Diagnostic Radiology Center, out of the same building on the first floor for X-rays, mammograms and nuclear medicine testing. For more information, call 248-625-3056.