Keokuk County Medical Clinic opens its doors

          The Keokuk County Medical Clinic, an affiliate of Keokuk County Health Center (KCHC), began seeing family care patients upstairs in the new clinic last week. They will continue to work on renovations and updates to the space.

            The move to the upstairs into what had previously been the University of Iowa Clinic had been planned for months, but the demand grew when U of I announced that the clinic would no longer be offering family care to the area. Instead, KCHC and its clinic have emerged as the primary family care provider in the area, ready to continue the same care as U of I did previously.

            “Our patient volume increased because of U of I clinic leaving, and since we were already planning on expanding upstairs we weren’t forced to move faster necessarily.” Rebecca Klett, Keokuk County Medical Clinic Manager said. “We had to find providers to work in the clinic, several of which we already had with us.”

            Robert Castro, M.D; Brian Murphy, ARNP; Lucia Obradovich, M.D. and Shelly Edwards, ARNP will provide family care to patients. Services provided by the clinic include physical exams, immunizations, annual wellness visits, minor surgical procedures, health status assessment and many of services. A fifth provider has a tentative appointment to begin services in November of this year. Brian Murphy will extend his availability from two to four days beginning on Sunday, August 28. U of I Outreach will still be available for monthly appointments, with pulmonary, urology and cardiology specialists available.

            The clinic is also undergoing renovations to its patient exam rooms. Since care is being provided at the same time, work can only be done to one room at a time, which means the work will take a couple of months to be completed. According to Klett, the renovations will include new paint and updated equipment to the exam rooms.

            “We are caring for all ages of patients and for a full range of family practices, so our room are being renovated to meet our needs,” Klett said. “We want the community to know that even with the U of I clinic closed, we can meet their needs here.”

            Matt Ives, KCHC CEO, feels that expanding upstairs will lead to more healthcare options after the current renovations are completed and the clinic is settled in. Ives reiterates that primary care for the community comes first, but other options are possible with the new space.

            “As we move along with this clinic, we can fill the void that the U of I clinic left behind,” Ives said. “We have the ability to provide new services in the future and we’re looking at other outreach services for our new space. Our mission is to provide primary care for the community, but we are also excited to bring more care options to everyone.”