A new, six-story medical clinic has opened in Sacramento, bringing its patients the comforts of modern architecture along with 21st-century health care.
The gleaming Mercy Medical Group Midtown is so welcoming that it has a salutary effect on patients walking into 3000 Q St., doctors said.
"It's great to see the patients be so happy," said Dr. Bob Quadro, a Mercy physician. "Every day I hear how pleased they are with the new building.
"It's a step forward in terms of having a great space in which to treat patients."
With a multicolor glass, brick and stucco facade, the clinic measures 122,000 square feet, making it about 45 percent larger than the old Mercy Downtown clinic at 3160 Folsom Blvd., which it replaced.
The new outpatient clinic – now the regional headquarters for Mercy Medical Group – has 92 doctors representing 32 specialties ranging from cardiology to hematology. The doctors will have a support staff of 356 employees.
Open since Aug. 25, the building is owned by Farmer's Market Q, a limited partnership that is leasing it to Mercy Medical Group.
The developers were Separovich Domich Real Estate and Ravel-Rasmussen Properties.
Neither Mercy nor the developers released the estimated cost of the building.
"On behalf of the development team, we are extraordinarily pleased with the completed project," said David Padgham, a member of the partnership.
"We believe it will serve Mercy's needs for many years, in a state-of-the-art facility," he said.
The architectural firm Boulder Associates designed the inside of the building, and CH&D Architects designed the outside.
"There weren't many locations in midtown to put a building like this," said Mike McClintock, executive director of Mercy Medical Group and the Catholic Healthcare West Medical Foundation.
Catholic Healthcare West is the parent company of local Mercy hospitals.
In the end, McClintock said, a truly accessible site was found, with both the Capital City Freeway and the 29th Street light-rail station as the clinic's neighbors.
During an interview in his sixth-floor office at the new clinic, McClintock raved about the building.
"My office literally sits on an eight-lane freeway," McClintock said, pointing at the fast-moving traffic below.
From his perch, the cars seem to move silently. The engines' roar is kept outside by triple-paned glass windows and extra soundproofing embedded in the building.
"In a quality health-care facility, we must be able to hear," McClintock said. "In this clinic, a doctor using a stethoscope to listen to a patient's heart won't be interrupted by loud noises from outside."
The building also has an electronic medical records system connected to all Mercy Medical Group sites, including 11 other clinics and four hospitals in greater Sacramento.
Each of the 218 exam rooms in the new clinic has a computer monitor, allowing doctors to quickly access a patient's file, eliminating the need for doctors to tote heavy charts.
For Quadro, the best feature is the expanded chemotherapy room for cancer patients on the third floor.
"We went from three (patient) chairs in the other clinic at Folsom Boulevard to an ability to have up to seven chairs, with more room for family and support people," said Quadro, head of the department of hematology and oncology for Mercy Medical Group.
"Doing chemotherapy is an anxious time for people," he said. "It's wonderful for patients to have others present for emotional support."
The new clinic's parking lot is across the street, under the freeway, on property leased from the state. Valet parking is available for patients preferring to drive to the clinic's main entrance, east of 30th Street.
The clinic serves patients from Mercy General Hospital in midtown, Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, Mercy Hospital of Folsom and Methodist Hospital in south Sacramento.
"This clinic is where their primary and specialty care doctors are," said Melissa Jue, a Mercy spokeswoman.
People who become ill after hours or on weekends can visit the walk-in clinic on the first floor. The clinic also is open during business hours on weekdays.
Call The Bee's Edgar Sanchez, (916) 321-1088.
