EVERETT, Wash. — Providence Regional Medical Center teamed up with Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine to open a clinic focused on providing health care to underserved populations.
Recently graduated doctors will complete their residencies at the clinic in Providence, Everett.
The clinic itself is meant to serve vulnerable populations like the homeless, elderly, people experiencing poverty, or those who are without health care coverage.
While the clinic is run by residents, there are board-certified physicians and faculty from WSU and Providence onsite overseeing the whole operation.
“There's the educational part for the resident, but it's also equally important for patients to know that the residents are backed up on-site with board-certified internal medicine faculty from the College of Medicine who are also fully credentialed here at Prov. Everett,” said Dr. Jay Cook, chief medical officer for Providence Regional Medical Center.
The clinic focuses on primary care, but also provides other services helpful to vulnerable populations like wound care, social work, and mental health support.
“We want to make this a place that's easy for patients to access and where they can try to have as much of a one-stop shop as we can,” said Cook.
The clinic allows residents to get the necessary hands-on experience while allowing people who need health care and do not necessarily have the means to get it will be taken care of.
“Whatever the cause, you know, they people adults really need to have an anchor where their care is centered, and we help to provide those services for people who may have difficulty accessing those in conventional ways,” said Cook.
While the clinic focuses on underserved populations, it has the capacity to treat thousands of patients a year and is open to anyone.
The clinic opened just a few weeks ago and is already treating patients from all around northwest Washington.
"This is not just a Providence and Washington State University project, with many community medical partners such as the Everett Clinic and Western Washington Medical Group, like community health centers. And where we want to end up, we're working to build partnerships with the Tulalip Tribes and other First Nations here," said Cook. "We want to build other relationships with rural practices and really small towns, both in Snohomish County, perhaps out on the Olympic Peninsula, so that we can really serve the entire Northwest, Puget Sound region."
