East Hill Medical Center is making a change to its practices on its Fulton Street campus to create a better experience for its patients. Duckett Family Medicine is colocating with Summit Pediatrics to create one primary care office. Both offices will see patients in the upper level of 13 N. Fulton St. later this year.
Patients will be served by their same trusted medical teams in a newly updated office. East Hill utilized grant funding to update the space into a modern, comfortable office with 12 exam rooms and a welcoming reception desk. Other features of the renovated office include a dedicated nursing station with a patient-facing window for easier access and a waiting room that has a specially designed air flow system to pull fresh air. The funding came from a American Rescue Plan health center construction and capital improvement grant.
Duckett Family Medicine will relocate to the top floor with Summit Pediatrics to form a combined family medicine office later this autumn. East Hill is updating the building exterior to put in modern outdoor lighting, switch outdated glass blocks to energy-efficient windows, and update the soffit in front of the building. Exterior improvements are made possible with generous support of the Allyn Family, Emerson, D.E. French and Stanley Metcalf foundations. Once those improvements are completed, DFM will move into the larger office upstairs.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e taking an integrated approach that will allow us to take care of entire families and transition youth from pediatrics to family medicine to keep them with the same trusted team at East Hill,鈥 said Dr. Adam Duckett, one of the providers at Duckett Family Medicine.
Family Nurse Practitioner Keith Hornbrook is another provider who is integral to the Duckett Family Medicine team. Rounding out the team is Certified Nurse Midwife Marge Tracy, who offers women鈥檚 health services, and Family Nurse Practitioner Jacklyn Bell. They are a large reason East Hill Medical Center won the FLX Finest award for best family physician, alongside their colleagues in the Adult Medicine Office.
Meanwhile, East Hill鈥檚 award-winning Summit Pediatrics team, which won top pediatrician in FLX Finest, consists of Dr. Daniel Gabriel, Dr. Adwoa Boateng and Family Nurse Practitioner Lindsay Lemessurier. Lizzie Bigsby is also completing her residency as a nurse practitioner with the pediatrics team this year.
Both offices are supported by quality receptionists, nurses and medical assistants. This move will help utilize all resources more effectively and share best practices among the care teams.
鈥淭his is not just a combination of physical spaces, it鈥檚 also a synergy of the best,鈥 added Dr. Gabriel, pointing to the multiple awards both offices have won over the years, including Best in the Region pediatrician for Dr. Gabriel and physician for Dr. Duckett.
Having both teams work out of the same office allows patients to have better experiences, with more exam rooms, a larger waiting room and a welcoming reception space in a modern, recently renovated space.
Another reason to colocate is the increasing number of requests Duckett Family Medicine receives asking if they serve young patients. Combining offices meets a need we are seeing in the community to serve families. Many people do not realize that both Duckett Family Medicine and Summit Pediatrics are primary care offices of East Hill Medical Center, a community health center. East Hill鈥檚 Genesee Street location houses Adult Medicine, Family Dental and its behavioral health department Inner Wellness, along with its administrative, quality and billing offices.
The space currently occupied by Duckett Family Medicine will be open once the move takes place, which will allow East Hill to consider other service options and access points for its thousands of patients to evolve their experience with the medical center.
鈥淭his opens up new options for us to enrich our patients鈥 experiences in getting care,鈥 Dr. Duckett said.
Meanwhile, beginning the last week of October and into November, East Hill will refurbish the entrances to its Metcalf Plaza building at 144 Genesee St. in downtown Auburn with funding through the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The existing concrete entrances will be ground out and repoured to create more accessible, inviting entrances to the community health center. During construction, one entrance will be blocked off at a time, restricting visitor access to the building from one side only. Signs will be placed in visible locations to direct visitors accordingly. Check out our website, , or Facebook page, , for updates.