New Medical Services Coming to Ave Maria
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- Published on Friday, 26 July 2013 21:10
The medical services landscape in Ave Maria is undergoing significant changes.
A physician management group, Physician MSO of Southwest Florida, announced Friday that it will be opening an office in the town center in August, in space vacated earlier this week by EPN Urgent Care.
The Ave Maria Medical Center will first offer OB/GYN services from two longtime Naples physicians, Dr. Thomas Beckett and Dr. Chris Grevengood, as well as urgent care provided by a physician's assistant, said the organization's president, Michael Presley.
"There is clearly a need in Ave Maria," said Dr. Grevengood. "It's a developing community and we're looking to expand our practice."
In addition to residents of Ave Maria, Mr. Presley said the doctors' current OB/GYN practice -- Total Women's Care -- sees a large number of patients from Immokalee.
Physician MSO manages back-office and support services for medical practices, a need that is even greater with the coming implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Presley said. "We handle billing, hire non-medical staff and lease or purchase office space, facilities and equipment."
In an interview, Mr. Presley said he is aware of, and respects, the predominantly Catholic values of the residents of Ave Maria.
"We don't perform abortions and would never counsel anyone to have an abortion," he said.
He said that the doctors in the OB/GYN practice perform genetic testing on babies in the womb, primarily because some health plans require it, but that their goal with such testing is to ensure that a baby gets appropriate care at birth.
"If, for example, a baby is found to have Down's Syndrome, we know that many of them have cardiac issues so we would ensure that a pediatric cardiologist was present at delivery," he said.
Mr. Presley said that once the office is up and running, they will look to offer other services such as pediatrics and family practice, although there is no timetable for that, according to Dr. Grevengood.
In addition to the new Medical Center of Ave Maria, a dermatology practice – Florida Coastal Dermatology – has also announced that they plan to begin seeing patients in Ave Maria on Fridays, beginning Aug. 2, working out of the Ave Maria Dental office.
EPN Urgent care, which opened in 2008, closed this week and the company said that their lease had not been renewed by Ave Maria Development.