The 18,800 square-foot building, one-story facility will feature patient-centered care with facility design and educational programs tailored for those 65 and older, officials said.
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
“We’re meeting the need for senior-specific health care in a community that has a growing senior population,” Dr. Melissa Butler, medical director of Years Ahead services for Kettering Physician Network, said in a statement about the office.
“By focusing on medical and non-medical determinants of health, we’re able to provide services that can really enhance the care of seniors,” she added.
Kettering Health also has a Years Ahead Health Center at 6661 Clyo Road in Centerville.
The Kettering office will be staffed with geriatric-trained physicians and patients will have “a lot longer appointments,” said Vickie Carraher, the city’s senior services coordinator.
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Patients will “get to sit down, talk the to the doctors,” she added. “The doctors have time to ask them the questions that doctors very rarely have time to do anymore. It’s senior-friendly.”
The office “will fill a void in the community because” the senior population “is just exploding. And we need individual doctors who are trained to deal with the specific issues” for them, Carraher said.
Kettering’s estimated 54,800 residents include nearly as many people 65 or older (18.5%) as it does under 18 (21.7%), according to recent U.S. Census figures. In 2000, 18.3% of the city’s residents were 65 and older while 24.5% were 19 and under, data shows.
Credit: Nick Blizzard
Credit: Nick Blizzard
Nationally, one in five of the U.S. population is expected to be 65 or older by 2030, according to the American Association of Retired Persons.
The census bureau projects by 2034 – for the first time - the U.S. population will have more people age 65 or older than those under 18, AARP records show.
The new Kettering Health site’s will include: Primary care; lab and imaging services; and educational and support programs.
It will be open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and have a care team of eight medical providers. This will include physicians, advanced practice providers, behavioral health support specialists and more than 20 support team staff members, according to the company.
The site will include X-ray and lab areas with more than 20 exam rooms, company and city records state.
Kettering Health consists of nine hospitals, 13 emergency departments, more than 200 outpatient facilities and more 700 board-certified providers in western Ohio.
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