Work is expected to begin in two years after financing is obtained.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 5, 2005

BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- In an effort to expand its services and better meet the growing demand for medical care, Providence Community Health Centers is planning a $30-million health clinic complex in South Providence.

The organization, which says it is the city's largest provider of primary health care, is planning office and retail space, a daycare center and a parking garage at the Prairie Avenue site.

The project will increase by nearly 500 percent the medical space the health centers organization has on the South Side. Work is expected to begin in about two years.

Leaders of the health-care network say the expansion is needed to meet a growing demand for services from the city's low-income residents. The network currently serves about 33,000 patients -- a 5,000 patient increase in the last four years.

"We're very excited about it," said Merrill Thomas, chief executive officer of the privately held, independent organization. "This project will mean a lot to the health centers, our patients and the entire community."

The organization plans to launch a capital campaign later this year to finance the project, officials said.

The new clinic will replace the Allen Berry health center, located two blocks down on Prairie Avenue, in space rented from the Urban League of Rhode Island. The current Allen Berry clinic has about 8,000 square feet of medical space. The new clinic will have about 45,000 square feet of medical space and 5,000 square feet of office space, Thomas said.

The project will be on a city block of nearly 3 1/2 acres bordered by Prairie, Potters and Gordon avenues and Public Street. Much of the site has been abandoned since 1998, when the Federated Lithograph complex shut down.

The plan calls for the health centers organization to demolish four of the existing buildings at the site.

Because the complex is located within an Industrial and Commercial Buildings Historic District, four remaining buildings will be renovated -- a measure that has already received approval from the city's Historic District Commission.

Thomas said design of the new health clinic and a parking garage will be integrated with two existing buildings near the corner of Prairie and Potters.

The plan also calls for construction of a mixed-use building that will contain retail and commercial space and a new child-care center, which would be run by an outside organization, Thomas said.

The redevelopment of two other existing buildings could involve the creation of residential, office and more commercial space; work on those buildings will be done in a later phase, officials said.

The health-center network -- which includes five health centers, a dental clinic, several school-based clinics, a sexually transmitted disease clinic and a clinic at the women's division of the Adult Correctional Institution -- accommodates about 200,000 medical visits annually.

The network offers a wide variety of services, including primary care and internal medicine, OB-GYN, dentistry, allergy and asthma treatment and pediatrics. It also serves as the city's administrator of the federal Women with Infant Children (WIC) program.

The organization's staff of about 240 people speaks eight languages and includes 45 licensed medical professionals.

Established in 1968, the Providence Community Health Centers serves many poor and low-income patients who cannot afford health insurance by using a sliding fee scale based on income and family size.

Thomas said the local demand for health-care services has grown so rapidly that the centers have struggled unsuccessfully to keep up. He said he expects that demand to continue, as the city's population increases and economic factors cause the number of residents without employer-sponsored medical insurance or Medicaid to increase.

While the demand continues to increase, the health-care centers -- including Allen Berry, Capitol Hill in the Smith Hill neighborhood, Central on Cranston Street, Olneyville and Fox Point -- are "bursting at the seams," said Loretta Tharp, director of income development.

And the health centers' administrative offices on Allens Avenue are equally cramped and overcrowded, Tharp said.

Thomas said the selection of the Federated Lithograph site as the home of the new health facility was reached through a process of elimination. It was one of the few sites in the area big enough to give the health-care center the space it needs and it was only two blocks from Allen Berry, a center that has been open since the 1970s and has many regular patients.

Tharp said the health centers organization will likely soon close the current Fox Point clinic because it is in space leased from the Fox Point Boys & Girls Club, which needs the space for its own expansion.

With that closure, Fox Point patients will be redirected to the clinic on Prairie Avenue.

Thomas said officials may centralize some specialized services -- such as testing labs -- at the new site, in order to make the process more efficient.

The new project will be near the Rhode Island Hospital complex. The health center organization works in partnership with Hasbro Children's Hospital, Women and Infants, Roger Williams Medical Center and Rhode Island Hospital.