UnityPoint Health opens new Prairie Parkway facility to the public - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

CEDAR FALLS — With a number of specialty and primary care practices now under one roof, the new UnityPoint Health-Prairie Parkway clinic is a hub of activity.

And patients of the health-care system showed up in force Saturday for the grand opening of the 90,000-square-foot, three-story facility at 5100 Prairie Parkway.

The lobby, waiting rooms, stairs and hallways were crowded with people there to explore the clinics and visit physicians or other staff. They found spacious areas featuring large windows and lots of natural light with colorful art on the walls. Many also took the opportunity to wander down hallways and look around the areas where patients receive care.

Pam Delagardelle, UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital CEO, said the new facility is “conceptually different” from what the company has done in the past. Urgent care, therapy, imaging, a laboratory and a pharmacy are located on the first floor of the Prairie Parkway building. The second floor includes obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and multi-specialities. Family medicine can be found on the third floor.

“We’re trying to get outpatient services under one roof,” she said. “We consolidated a number of our primary care facilities into this office.”

As a result, patients who need to follow up with specialists after seeing their primary care physician can be sent down the hall rather than making additional phone calls and trips to a different location.

“Having those co-located has really been beneficial for our patients,” said Delagardelle. The facility is also at the center of coordination of care efforts underway in the health system that focus on improving access and quality for patients.

“I think we really designed the building to be very directed toward primary care,” said Dr. Dan Glasscock, one of the family practitioners. “We’re putting our emphasis on keeping patients healthy rather than treating illness. Most of that work starts right in the family medical clinic.”

He stressed that some services like the pharmacy and urgent care are open to those who aren’t part of the system. “This is a community resource,” said Glasscock. “You don’t have to be a UnityPoint patient.”

Location is key to this new facility. “The gist of this whole building for us is also to provide services to Cedar Falls and the surrounding area,” noted Delegardelle. Until now, patients had to travel as far as UnityPoint-Allen Hospital on Waterloo’s northeast side for some of those services.

Prairie Parkway is in a part of Cedar Falls seeing a lot of population growth. Along with burgeoning neighborhoods nearby, senior living facilities such as Western Home Communities are in the area. In addition, it’s fairly close to the University of Northern Iowa.

Delagardelle said the proximity to bike trails and walking paths was also important. “It the setting that we think will help us to encourage healthy living.”

The first service to open in the building was urgent care on Nov. 30. The final ones were the pediatric and therapy clinics, which opened ast Monday.

The Greenhill and Cedarloo family medicine clinics were consolidated in the new building during December. The former facilities in Waterloo and Cedar Falls are expected to be repurposed for other uses, which have not yet been announced. The clinic on West Eighth Street in Cedar Falls will be used for administration.

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Laboratory, imaging, therapy and pharmacy are all new services that didn’t move from another location, according to officials.

Many people toured the occupational, physical and speech therapy wing on the first floor Saturday. Private treatment rooms are organized around a large central area outfitted with various therapy tools — weight equipment, stationary bicycles, ramps, steps, a ladder, a shelf and more.

Down a hallway are four rooms designed to serve children’s therapy needs. Two feature various play equipment, including swings that can be attached to the ceilings. The two other rooms are more structured spaces, providing a place for children to work on fine motor skills.

“This is going to be a new service for UnityPoint,” said Katie Jo Funk, an occupational therapist. She pointed out observation areas in between the rooms. “Parents can observe without being part of therapy,” she explained.

Delagardelle expects to see expansion of health care-related services surrounding the facility. Other medical specialists and services such as dentistry are a possibility, including those not associated with UnityPoint Health.

“This is a campus,” she said. “This is the first of other services we hope to offer here.”