Kaiser Permanente opened the doors to its new sports medicine center in Elk Grove earlier this month, a first for the health network in Northern California and the latest entry in an increasingly competitive market.

The 4,000-square-foot center inside Kaiser's new Promenade Medical Offices in Elk Grove, with its gym for patient training and rehabilitation, indoor track for running assessments, therapy rooms and fitness testing labs, is a response to patient demand and Kaiser's own fitness-as-remedy credo.

At Kaiser, patients were "looking for a service that could meet that need," said physician Meredith Bean. She worked six years at Kaiser South Medical Center and is now director of the new sports medicine center in Elk Grove. "In many cases, we would see people from Sacramento and beyond. We know that was a demand and we see that continuing to grow."

That is especially true in the growing south Sacramento County, home to 196,000 Kaiser members – 86,000 of whom live in Elk Grove or nearby.

The speciality is a natural outgrowth of the increased emphasis on fitness and health as a way to save on health costs. It's also a response to market demand from active adults.

Health plans and networks "are encouraging exercise and there are ties to exercise-as-medicine," said William Roberts, a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and a family medicine professor at University of Minnesota. "They've expanded sports medicine's scope to look at health and health outcomes. There's more emphasis on exercise."

Active adults who sustain sports injuries have grown more savvy about seeking care for strains and breaks and rehabilitation to get back on their feet.

"Active people are more educated now. Before it was, 'Put some ice on it and take an Advil,' " said David Ferneau, director of rehabilitation at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. "Now, if they have an injury and it doesn't go away, they are seeking attention. From my perspective, that's a good thing."

Consumers are actively shopping for preventive care provisions in their health plans, including fitness and wellness programs.

"Sports medicine has grown on the primary care side over the last couple of decades because consumers are asking for it," Roberts said. "A lot of consumers are looking for this option in their health care plans, so it doesn't surprise me that there's competition."

The University of California, Davis, Health System for years has been a local leader in the field. with expertise in exercise physiology, nutrition, orthopedics and sports psychology.

While Kaiser's sports medicine center is the newest on the sports medicine block, UC Davis' midtown Sacramento facility at 28th and J streets remains the largest under one roof in the area. It consists of approximately 7,000 square feet for its lab and clinic areas, plus an additional 947 square-foot biomechanics lab. The facility is staffed by a dozen physicians and sports medicine experts in specialties from biomechanics to nutrition and sports physiology

Mercy also has a strong sports medicine presence in Sacramento, with a focus on injury care. Ferneau said he has seen demand for sports medicine treatment rise in recent years.

"The volume has grown quite a bit in the last several years. We've seen much growth in the younger population – injuries are just huge," Ferneau said. "Kids play, but their parents also want to be active, so that part of the population (seeking sports medicine care) has grown larger."

Sutter Health has no sports medicine program, but physicians at its Sutter Orthopaedic Institute focus on bone and muscle health, work as team physicians for area teams and schools,; and offer preventive care.

Physicians at Kaiser's new center will be able to treat injuries at the facility and determine whether more intensive treatment is needed at Kaiser's south Sacramento campus. But the center's primary focus is on exercise, rehabilitation and therapy, Bean said.

"Being physically active is the No. 1 thing you can do to be healthy. We place an emphasis on that," Bean said. "There's a perception that sports medicine equals surgery (but) exercise is a prescription for wellness."

Beyond the sports medicine piece, Kaiser is looking to expand its reach in the south county and a still-underserved Elk Grove. Sutter Health and Mercy have also recently opened medical facilities in Elk Grove.

Kaiser's new sports medicine facility is part of the Promenade Medical Offices on Promenade Parkway, near the unfinished Elk Grove Promenade. In all, the complex has 67,000 square feet of space that will also offer adult medicine, pediatrics, women's health, pharmacy and other services.

"It's close to the bulk of patients accessing our venue," said Rich Isaacs, physician-in-chief of Kaiser's south Sacramento and Elk Grove facilities. He said the center is "part of an overall strategy to deliver care to the south Sacramento area."

Sacramento's sports medicine market is competitive, but Jeffrey Tanji, UC Davis Health System's associate medical director for sports medicine, downplays that side of things and emphasizes a common mission across organizations to promote better health.

"We're not in competition, but allies to encourage people to be active physically," Tanji said of the region's sports medicine practitioners.

"We want to encourage people to be active in a safe fashion with increased physical activity," he said. "It's safer to provide injury care, but Kaiser has been very bold on this point. It's taking a chance, but the potential impact is really immense."

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.

• Read more articles by Darrell Smith