Eating a hot dog on a sunny day outside a new clinic in her neighborhood, Christine Brooks reflected on how long she’s waited for a urgent medical care facility in East Gainesville.
“I was raised on this side of town,” said Brooks, 72, a medical records employee for UF Health Shands Hospital. “I’ve been waiting to see something like this happen for a long time.”
The University of Florida’s medical network runs nine emergency and urgent care facilities in Gainesville. But UF Health Urgent Care Center Eastside, on Hawthorne Road near the Lincoln Estates and Lincoln Heights neighborhoods, will be the first east of Main Street.
East Gainesville is an underserved area with a mostly Black population that recently has been the focus of redevelopment after decades of poverty, substandard housing and food insecurity.
Residents have long had to go to elsewhere in the city for medical and shopping options that other local communities take for granted. For example, just one of eight UF Health family medicine centers and one of more than 30 grocery stores are east of Main.
Expected to serve between 12,000 to 15,000 visitors annually, the facility will open Thursday after a three-year planning and construction process funded by city, county and federal dollars.
More than 700 people recently attended an open house at the center.
“I think after today … it won’t be long before the word gets out that we have an urgent care center in this neighborhood,” Brooks said from a sheltered picnic table over the chatter of boys and girls comparing face paint and adults in line for ice cream.
Why not an emergency room?
UF Health first met with the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission in September 2021 with intentions to build the clinic in East Gainesville. Ed Jimenez, who was then the hospital system’s chief executive officer, requested $4.5 million for it.
Area ZIP codes showed the highest rates of ER visits for avoidable hospital admissions in a 2020 health survey, Jimenez told the commissioners. UF Health used that data to recommend providing urgent care rather than emergency services, he said.
Urgent care providers treat maladies like minor broken bones, fevers, cuts and burns. Wait times are shorter and prices lower at these clinics than at an ER, which typically handles life-threatening situations, Jimenez said.
The number of patients from East Gainesville per day seeking emergency care at Shands didn’t justify an ER facility in that area, he said.
When factoring after-hours care and serving patients regardless of ability to pay, the new location’s expenses will likely exceed revenue by $200,000 to $300,000 each year, Jimenez said. The university and UF Health are willing to take the loss because it’s the “right thing to do,” he said.
Still, many East Gainesville residents said at community meetings UF Health held before construction began on the center that they worry that urgent care won’t be robust enough.
However, Gailine McCaslin, the center’s first administrator, called the clinic an “urgent care plus.” It will have both full-time and rotating doctors, a nurse manager, a lab services team – and a social worker, which McCaslin said is unusual for urgent care.
“We really want to serve this community,” she said. “If folks that are on self-pay are uninsured, we can connect them with our social worker to identify resources that may be available.”
About 87% of people in the census tract just south of the center’s location have health insurance – 4 percentage points lower than the citywide average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While residents also wanted a 24-hour service facility, the clinic will operate from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 12 to 4 p.m. Sundays. UF Health may amend or expand the hours depending on usage, said Dr. Danielle Nelson, the center’s main medical director.
A family doctor, Nelson will pick up shifts and supervise other providers at Eastside while continuing to work at an another UF Health facility on Main Street.
“I approach all patients the same,” said Nelson, who has treated East Gainesville residents at Main since 2016. “Everybody, when they’re hurting and in need of care, is at a vulnerable state.”
UF, Alachua and Gainesville: a “unique” collaboration
Chymerial Jones brought her 4-year-old daughter to the open house to pick out a backpack before her first day at Duval Early Learning Academy.
Jones, 33, said not having a full hospital doesn’t matter to her, as long as she has some type of care in her neighborhood.
“I actually just went to urgent care way off of Newberry Road the other day, because I sprained my finger, which is bad, because I barely have transportation,” she said. “So by this being so close – walking distance – it’s very convenient for us.”
Jones was also excited that the city will soon open a Gainesville Regional Transit System bus hub next to the urgent care facility.
Mayor Harvey Ward said the city expects to break ground on the RTS Eastside Transfer Station this month, with hopes of it opening in the fall or early 2025.
Both the bus hub and UF Health Eastside are part of the Eastside Health and Economic Development Initiative, a redevelopment project focused on 37 acres south of the clinic.
A grocery store, retail spaces and market rate and affordable housing are also planned near the clinic, Ward said. The city also planned to add a fire station but ran into space issues, he said.
Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area, the department leading the initiative, said in January that the project would cost $22.2 million. Ward said his “back of the napkin” calculations suggest the city, county and UF will together spend $40 million to $50 million on the site.
Federal money is also involved, the mayor said. The Federal Transit Administration helped fund the bus station. The American Rescue Plan Act, a pandemic-inspired stimulus relief package, provided the $2.25 million the city and county each put into Eastside.
“We all worked together on this …,” Ward said. “We said this funding belongs on Hawthorne Road, and UF Health did a remarkable job of listening.”
The redevelopment will help East Gainesville secure the three main factors people consider when choosing a home: public transportation, grocery shopping and health care, said Michael Eaton, the Gainesville Housing Authority’s vice president for real estate development.
“They’re the things I would, if I had a magic wand, put in this neighborhood to make it more friendly toward low-income people,” Eaton said at the open house.
“We’re hoping that it continues”
Carrie Parker-Warren, 83, who has lived in Gainesville for about 40 years, said she was happy to see the clinic open because the “city and county had to start somewhere.” But she agrees that East Gainesville needs more amenities such as grocery stores and residential housing.
“This is where I’m going to spend my last days, and I want it quality – I want quality housing and just a quality environment,” said Parker-Warren, a retired educator. “The east side of town really has been neglected for many, many years.”
Wayne Fields, president of the Eastside Gainesville Alliance, said that while the clinic is a “start,” the community still lacks a bank, insurance office and sufficient single-family housing.
“We are happy that this is taking place, but we’re hoping that it continues,” he said. “And that the domino effect of homeownership now increases, and the other services will increase as well.”
Alicia Hardy grew up in Lincoln Estates, but now lives in the northwest part of the city and is a nurse at Shands. She attended the open house to grab a bite to eat and show her support.
“I came out just to be a representative, to honestly be another Black face in health care to say, you know, ‘We are trying to get services on the side of town where they’re needed,’” Hardy said.
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