Primary function is as business office, no clinical services offered
Multicare Health System, a not-for-profit healthcare organization, opened an access center on the West Plains last month to better serve their Spokane County patients. The center employs more than 45 people, and Multicare officials are predicting steady growth in the future.
Multicare acquired several local healthcare facilities in July 2017, and has been planning its West Plains patient access center in earnest for about six months, Access Center Executive Director Wray Durst said.
The search for a building with adequate square footage took up the majority of that time, Durst said. The center opened for business Jan. 3 on Windsor Drive in a former Group Health office building near Spokane International Airport and has been steadily increasing its call volume.
“We needed a location close to the freeway and one that would take into account our employee’s commutes,” Durst said. “We also needed a building that would accommodate not only our current size but our future growth.”
No clinical services will be offered at the West Plains location, Durst said. Instead, it will function primarily as a business office where patients can call and schedule appointments, ask questions and take care of issues that usually aren’t dealt with until the day of their appointment. It will primarily serve residents of Airway Heights, Medical Lake and Cheney.
“It takes care of a lot of things that people normally would have had to stand at the front desk or wait in line for,” Durst said.
According to Kevin Maloney, a marketing specialist for Multicare, the opening of a West Plains location is simply a continuation of the organization’s expansion into Eastern Washington.
The center is meant to cut down on patients’ time in line and on the phone, improving patient care and experience, Maloney said.
“One of the things we really wanted was to build something near the Inland Northwest,” Durst said. “A lot of employees are also patients and we wanted to stay connected to the region and keep that local connection.”
About 45 people work in the call center, not counting leadership teams, Durst said. And steady, smart growth is already on the horizon. Durst said he does anticipate expanding the West Plains Access Center at some point.
“We will grow, but we’re doing it in a methodical way,” he said. “It’ll be over time, since we want to be very cognizant of what makes the best sense.”
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
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