Onsite medical clinics being set up in senior communities

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas -- An idea whose time has come could be said for the concept of setting up on-site clinics in senior retirement, multi-family dwellings. Currently in the Kingwood-Humble area, five apartment settlements for 55-year and older seniors, will be setting up convenient in-house clinics not unlike the medical clinics in nursing homes, where prescriptions can be obtained, lab work drawn, obtain flu shots, etc., to accommodate the residents.

A consortium of doctors who prefer not to be named at this time, are taking the preliminary steps to set up these clinics with other communities in mind to replicate the concept.

“A nurse practitioner will visit the clinic one day a week to see the patients who have signed up for an appointment,” said Trina Hawkins, a nurse practitioner. “An LVN may also be provided .”

Although the concept isn’t new to have onsite clinics where seniors reside, it is for senior living apartments and residential communities. This could become essential as the baby-boomers age.

“Other value-added services will include wound care, and even X-rays using mobile X-ray service companies,” said Hawkins.

As the community in Montgomery County and the surrounding area continues to grow, there will be more senior living communities, not to mention the addition of more major medical facilities in the county. The demand for qualified nurses to staff the onsite clinics, and both the new and expanding hospitals, will definitely rise. Lone Star College-Montgomery is ahead of the trend by intensifying its nursing program, in part, through the generosity of Memorial Hermann. The program requires intense faculty interaction with students. For six years the hospital has underwritten the salary of an additional nursing faculty member.

It remains to be seen if The Woodlands will be targeted for a program that installs medical clinics in-house, at senior apartment complexes, other multi-family dwellings, and residential communities, but other communities are putting the plan to work.

“I can’t imagine them not doing so,” said Hawkins. “It will become the norm, not the exception.”