New center opens at Providence to serve vulnerable patients

EVERETT — Mike Mallory used to drive at least half an hour to Edmonds to see his doctor. If there was traffic, it could take an hour.

But on July 6 he could walk a couple of blocks to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett for an appointment.

This made him patient No. 1 served by a resident physician at the hospital’s new Internal Medicine Center, a partnership between Providence and Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.

Mallory, who has lived in Everett for five years, was escorted to an examining room for a regular check-up. He then met with one of the 16 new physician residents who started seeing patients last week. He said the resident was “very thorough” as she asked questions about his health. Then an attending physician went over many of the same points. In all, he estimated the appointment took about an hour.

The goal of the new center is to serve people who might not otherwise get adequate medical care. Physician residents in their second and third years in the program will be assigned for a month at a time to rural areas in Western Washington where town doctors can be few and far between. People in the country’s most rural counties were more likely to suffer deaths that were potentially preventable from the five leading causes than those in the most urban counties between 2010 and 2017, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I don’t want to make generalities, but if you don’t have the access to care that you need, you’re likely not going to have preventative medicine,” said the residency’s program director, Matthew Hansen. “You’re not likely going to have an easy time getting to see a primary care physician to have, again, preventative medicine or early diagnosis of things like malignancies.”

Everett could be a great hub for this outreach since it’s an urban area surrounded by rural areas with much less access, Hansen said. The clinic has had discussions with outlying communities about becoming involved.

Associate program director Delaney Goulet said this aspect of the center has several goals: “Hopefully integrate into that community, see what life is like in a smaller place, understand what it means to treat your patients in the office and then turn around and see them in the grocery store, have them show you that rash that you helped them take care of in clinic.”

In their first year, residents are working with MercyWatch, a faith-based nonprofit doing street medicine locally. At least one resident goes to Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Cedar Street every Tuesday, and the Everett United Church of Christ and the Snohomish County Needle Exchange every Thursday, surveying people to see if they need medical care or simply helping with the organization’s work. Hansen and residents referred a few people last Thursday to the clinic the next day to get served by the same resident they met.

“We establish that trust, come to the patient on their terms where they feel comfortable in a non-threatening way, and then hopefully we establish some level of trust and relationship during that brief encounter,” Hansen said.

Hansen hopes the infusion of resident physicians volunteering can expand MercyWatch’s reach.

The objective of the clinic on Providence’s Colby campus is to provide in one place all the services patients might need. Those include on-site tests for pregnancy, COVID-19, drug use and diabetes. There are social workers available to connect patients to services and a pharmacist. The center also features a robust telemedicine side to connect with patients who can’t come to the Everett site in person.

Goulet estimated that within the next few years the center could serve 25,000 to 30,000 patients a year.

The center was in development for about three years before first opening for faculty physicians to see patients on June 21, Hansen said. Two weeks later, residents started seeing patients. It is now open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can call 425-297-5234 to schedule an appointment.

Mallory said he is happy to now have a convenient clinic he can go to so close to home, instead of having to face a commute every time he needs to see a doctor.

“They’ll be my regular doctors now,” he said.

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.