New Collier clinic for women to open soon

Collier Health Services Inc. is opening a new full-service gynecological-obstetric clinic for women, but an emphasis will be on meeting the medical needs of older women on Medicare.

The North Naples Center for Women's Health will open at 1284 Creekside St. in the Creekside Medical Center off Goodlette-Frank Road on or about June 20, said Richard Akin, chief executive officer of CHSI.

Initially, the clinic will have one full-time OB/GYN, Dr. Sandy Estes, along with one nurse and two clerical staff members and will operate three days a week. The clinic will expand to five days a week as patient volume grows, he said.

The handful of other OB/GYN's who work at CHSI's Marion E. Fether Clinic in Immokalee will rotate through the North Naples clinic to provide backup assistance to Estes. The new clinic will have eight exam rooms.

The clinic will provide a full range of gynecological and obstetric services to women of all ages, but a target market as the clinic gets established in the coming year will be women on Medicare. That group of women often face hardships in obtaining gynecological care, he said. Because of reimbursement and malpractice issues, some OB/GYN's have decided not to accept new Medicare patients older than 65.

"We're not singling out Medicare (patients), but we know that is a group who are underserved," Akin said. "It will take a year to fill the practice up."

On average, one OB/GYN can handle 3,000 patients a year, Akin said.

At the same time, OB/GYN's at Marion E. Fether in Immokalee need to be closer to North Collier Hospital and its Birth Center for deliveries, which explains the new clinic's proximity to the hospital, Akin said. CHSI operates the Immokalee clinic.

Estes joined CHSI's staff in January and he seemed the right fit to get the new clinic rolling, Akin said.

The bulk of the funding for the new clinic is coming from the former Cleveland Clinic Naples, which reached a settlement with state health-care regulators in 2005 for not meeting requirements for how many charity care and Medicaid patients were treated at the hospital in 2002 and 2003.

The settlement required Cleveland Clinic to pay CHSI $600,000 over three years for the hiring of an OB/GYN and to help address the needs of low-income women.

This past May 1, the Naples-based Health Management Associates purchased the 83-bed Cleveland Clinic Naples hospital, its outpatient medical center and vacant acreage on the south side of Pine Ridge Road opposite Napa Boulevard for $125.5 million. HMA renamed the hospital Physicians Regional Medical Center.

In the past, CSHI has skirmished with the Foundation for Women's Health, a group of eight OB/GYN's who devote time from their private practices to provide prenatal care and delivery services to low-income women in Collier County. Established in 1999, the foundation works out of the Collier County Health Department in the government complex in East Naples.

Akin said there has been no communication with the foundation physicians about the new North Naples clinic. He recognizes the foundation may regard the new clinic as competition.

"Our feeling is there is plenty of need out there," Akin said, especially regarding older women on Medicare. "We see a lot of people have trouble accessing care."

Ted Travis, the foundation's administrator, said he welcomes the competition for younger women and favors how the new clinic will have an emphasis on addressing the needs of older women.

"Is (Akin) going to be serving a need? Absolutely," Travis said.

The number to call to inquire about the hours of the North Naples Center for Women's Health or to make an appointment is 566-1991.