Category Archives: Family Medicine

Family Medicine

Open House Held Thursday at Knoxville Hospital and Clinics – KNIA KRLS Radio

An open house was held Thursday at Knoxville Hospital and Clinics for the new Don and Margaret Long Infusion Center and Weiler Specialty Clinics.

The community came out to the hospital to celebrate the first phase of the $21 million expansion project. The Weiler Foundation Specialty Clinics, home to 24 visiting specialists, is located on the east side of the hospital and shares a waiting room with the Dr. Earl J. McKeever Clinic for family medicine. The Don & Margaret Long Infusion Center, located on the south side of the hospital, provides private treatment spaces featuring 12 treatment chairs with room for loved one support. Knoxville Hospital and Clinics CEO Kevin Kincaid says he was excited to see the communitys response to the effort.

People really wanted to have an open house. We were able to open this project about a month earlier than expected, so it kind of threw some of the original planning into a little bit of chaos when it came to, how do we do an open house when were already open? The community has been really flexible picking a good day that is good from a patient activity perspective. Its been a great turnout and we just love having people come see what we do.

The next phase of the construction project will focus on the Emergency Department, with work expected to begin this month.

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Open House Held Thursday at Knoxville Hospital and Clinics - KNIA KRLS Radio

Family Medicine

Will $1 Billion Given to a Bronx Medical School Improve the Boroughs Health? – The New York Times

For Trevor Barker, a first-year student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, the $1 billion gift from a longtime former professor that will eliminate tuition at the medical school could well be life-changing.

Mr. Barker works two campus jobs and sends money home to his mother in California. He had expected to graduate hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. But the free tuition has made him ponder new options for his career.

I hadnt really been able to consider family medicine, but I might want to, he said.

Family medicine doctors do everything from delivering babies to caring for older people usually in underserved communities. Mr. Barker said he might consider practicing medicine in the Bronx, even though doctors there generally earn less.

The billion-dollar donation by Dr. Ruth Gottesman made national news last week for its generosity and because of her life story. It also resonated because it did not go to a school in Manhattan, where top medical and educational institutions are regularly feted with gifts from billionaires.

Instead her gift went to the only medical school in the poorest and unhealthiest county in New York State: Einstein, a well-regarded medical school with over 1,000 students that is affiliated with a major hospital, Montefiore Medical Center. Almost immediately, doctors and health experts began to consider what effect it would have on health care in a borough with high rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma, and with relatively few primary care physicians.

Dr. Gottesmans gift is intended to help Einstein and its medical students and encourage more lower-income students to apply to medical school. It might also encourage students like Mr. Barker to practice medicine in the borough. And some health care experts and doctors were optimistic that the boon to Einstein would be felt beyond the campus, with a trickle-down effect that would eventually improve health care across the Bronx.

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Will $1 Billion Given to a Bronx Medical School Improve the Boroughs Health? - The New York Times

Family Medicine

Five Questions to Consider to Maintain Your 2024 Health Goals – McLaren Health Care

January 05, 2024

Author: McLaren Flint

The new year brings about peoples collective resolutions, aiming to improve an aspect of their individual lives.

One of the most popular resolutions is health.

Countless people have resolved to better themselves and their overall general health through increased exercise, more conscious food choices, and the avoidance of some bad habits.

While you are setting your goals and cementing your commitment to them, set yourself up for lasting success by considering these five questions, and discussing them with your primary care provider.

What is the current state of your health?

Knowing your vital stats (such as blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, body mass index, etc.) is a great way to establish a baseline. This will allow you to create specific goals and track your progress.

What would you like to do?

Do you want to lose weight or body fat? Improve your diet? A persons general health is a vague subject. Increase your chances for success by clearly defining what youd like to improve upon.

Don't try to make big changes right away, said Heather Werlinger, certified family medicine nurse practitioner at McLaren Flint-Community Medical Center. Start with one small change. For instance, if you are trying to lose weight, instead of trying to rearrange your entire normal diet and exercise routine, start by reducing your portion size. Instead of eating out for lunch, start packing a lunch. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs. After you have implemented these changes for 3-4 weeks and they become a habit, then add more. This will help to make long term change by creating healthy habits.

What is your plan for achieving this goal?

Will you start exercising more or adjust your diet? Choose a path that best fits your routine and personality to create healthy habits that will create lasting success.

Keep a journal to track your progress, said Werlinger. Get your family involved so you can do it together. Make regular appointments with your health care provider so they can help keep you on track. I love it when patients come in and we can celebrate removing a blood pressure medication because they have lost weight.

Are your expectations realistic?

Its easy to say youll run 10 miles a day, but will you stick to it day in and day out? Is it even possible to lose 30 pounds in 30 days? Unrealistic expectations will ultimately lead to discouragement, prompting the abandonment of goals and any resolve to achieve them. Consult your doctor to set realistic expectations and reasonable timelines.

Joyce John, certified nurse practitioner at McLaren-Flint Grand Blanc Community Medical Center says being specific when setting goals and setting well defined goals that are concrete rather than broad, can help keep your expectations realistic. For example, instead of choosing a broad goal of "I want to exercise more, a more specific goal would be to walk 20 minutes a day. Its important to set reasonable, realistic, and attainable goals to prevent discouragement.

What is your motivation?

The steps taken to improve your general health are positive life changes, but what is your true motivation? Are you doing this for your family? To feel physically better? To feel mentally better? Know why youre striving after these goals, and remind yourself of it often.

It is all about creating healthy habits, said Werlinger. If you make small changes slowly, they eventually add up to bigchanges. Remember, you didn't get where you are overnight, you are not going to fix it overnight.

If you are in need of a primary care provider, visit us online at mclaren.org/primarycare.

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Five Questions to Consider to Maintain Your 2024 Health Goals - McLaren Health Care

Family Medicine

How to Prioritize Preventative Health Care This Year – University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The beginning of the year often elevates health-focused resolutions, but one of the most beneficial goals may be one that keeps eluding your calendar: an annual check-up.

Preventative medicine has the ability to help people support their goals of staying healthy and help physicians catch any health concern early so that we can actually do more for them, says Cleveland Piggott, MD, MPH, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. When we catch illness later in its course, we're often more limited in what we can do.

Preventive health care screenings, vaccinations, and check-ins with a primary physician can save tens of thousands of lives each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, yet surveys continuously show that many Americans are putting it off.

There are several ways Piggott says people can put their health first this year by keeping up with regular preventative care and prioritizing important conversations with a family doctor.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a major disruption in preventative health care for many, Piggott says. With the closure of some offices and fear of the coronavirus itself, many canceled or postponed visits, and may still be doing so.

Especially toward the later part of the pandemic phase, we found that people were presenting sicker, and there were illnesses that we could have caught and helped earlier, he says. This lapse in care made some elements of the pandemic worse, as we saw a huge drop off in vaccinations, especially in pediatric populations, for example. People couldnt get the preventative care that they needed to really stave off some of those illnesses.

Now, with more normal health care operations in place, Piggott says its a good time to commit to regular appropriate care, screenings, and vaccinations.

People associate an annual visit with bloodwork and recommended immunizations, but its also about talking through health goals and how we can support patients, especially when there may not be quick fixes, he says. We also try to support people with social determinants of health. That can mean pointing them toward resources if theyre struggling with food or housing insecurity and reminding them about other forms of care, including dental and vision check-ups.

The first step is making an appointment. Piggott recommends setting an annual reminder to schedule a doctors visit to keep from pushing it down the road.

Some of my patients make preventative health care part of their birthday month routine so they dont forget it, he says.

Its also important to pay attention to any reminders or messages coming from a provider. Doctors offices often also keep track of annual reminders.

Preventative health care can help doctors detect disease early, often allowing doctors more treatment and care options.

One example of this is colon cancer, Piggott says. Its generally a slow-growing cancer that, if caught early, has a good prognosis. Another is depression. If you haven't been feeling quite like yourself for a while, physicians have ways to support you, from getting access to a therapist to developing an exercise routine or prescribing necessary medications.

Building a relationship with a primary care doctor can also serve an important role in preventative health. Having a history with a provider can help them know when something is normal or not.

For those new or returning to preventative care this year, Piggott suggests doing some preparation work before the visit. Making a list of questions or concerns can be particularly helpful for both the patient and the doctor.

I think we've all been in moments where we have all these questions we want to talk to someone about and it floats out of our mind right when we are supposed to bring it up, he says.

Additionally, Piggott says to prioritize that list in order of most importance. A doctor may not be able to devote the thoroughness needed to a health concern if there are more than two or three concerns, but is happy to find a time to talk about them at a future visit. It can also be challenging or overwhelming as a patient as too many recommendations or changes from a doctor can be hard to follow through on.

Preventative care check-ins are a great time to learn and ask clarifying questions, especially as evidence and recommendations for screenings can change.

Your provider might not do labs or certain procedures at every preventative visit, for example, because of new evidence informing updated recommendations, Piggott explains. Evidence based preventative care in the context of a relationship with a trusted doctor is an important and often overlooked way to maintain health and improve your quality of life.

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How to Prioritize Preventative Health Care This Year - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Family Medicine

Column: Improve Medicaid payments for primary care in Virginia – The Virginian-Pilot

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Despite this, we spend more than $4 trillion a year (18% of our GDP) on health care treatments with less than 6% of that amount going into primary care, which focuses on prevention of illness. Primary care providers include family physicians, internists, pediatricians, OB-GYN doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants that are the first stop for most people accessing our health care system.

Primary care in the United States is under tremendous stress. Office overhead expenses run 60-70%. Insurers require increased documentation in electronic health records and prior authorization requirements are frustrating and time consuming. There is an aging workforce and it is difficult to recruit new physicians into this challenging line of work. Many primary care doctors have retired or left private practice and joined large hospital-based systems.

Virginia expanded Medicaid coverage in 2018. Medicaid now insures nearly 1 in 4 Virginians, dramatically increasing the number of Virginians who have health insurance. There is a little discussed problem with Virginias Medicaid payment system however; the payment amount for services is only 72% of that for Medicare and even less than that compared to private insurance payments. Despite this, 76% of primary care providers continue to see Medicaid patients and 58% are taking new Medicaid beneficiaries.

I learned firsthand the financial problems that result from taking low Medicaid payments as the medical director of two large family medicine residency training practices over 17 years. More than a third of our patients had Medicaid and this percentage increased after Virginias 2018 Medicaid expansion. We continued to see more Medicaid patients who needed comprehensive care, but took significant financial losses for doing so. This led to eliminating essential staff positions, making it much more difficult to continue our mission of providing primary preventive care and treating chronic illnesses.

Many Medicaid patients have more severe chronic illnesses than those with private insurance, and thus it takes longer to see them and provide the complex care that they need. This contributes significantly to the stress of primary care doctors, since they are responsible for the many problems these patients have. Other insurance programs have a system for compensating providers with higher reimbursement for treating those with more severe illness and rewarding higher quality care with better payment. Medicaid has no effective system for doing this; payments remain 72% of the average Medicare reimbursement, despite many previous legislative efforts to get these payments to parity with Medicare.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently proposed his $84 billion budget for FY 2024 and has proposed tax cuts as noted by The Virginian-Pilot & Daily Press Editorial Board on Dec. 27 (A tax reform opportunity). There was a massive budget surplus in the last two years and much debate about how that money should be spent on many worthy causes. A compromise between tax cuts and spending in important areas was finally reached between Democrats and Republicans this past summer. This debate will go forward in the 2024 legislative session, which begins on Wednesday.

It would be a huge boost to our primary care workforce if the legislature were to act to provide Medicaid payments for primary care that are equal to those of Medicare. Estimates put the cost of this at $178 million dollars annually, which is only 0.2% of the total annual Virginia budget. Doing this would provide health care security to our less fortunate citizens by ensuring continued access to primary care services. Millions of future health care dollars would be saved by providing prevention and early treatment of chronic disease instead of treating much more expensive advanced illnesses. What could be a better investment in the future health of Virginians?

Dr. Bob Newman is a clinical professor of family medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. He is the author of Patients Compass, which is a guide to navigating the U.S. health care system, available online at yourpatientcompass.com.

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Column: Improve Medicaid payments for primary care in Virginia - The Virginian-Pilot

Family Medicine

Rural America’s Obstetrical Care Crisis: The Vital Role of Family Physicians – BNN Breaking

Rural Americas Obstetrical Care Crisis: The Vital Role of Family Physicians

In the agricultural heartland of Cairo, Georgia, family physician Zita Magloire is a beacon of hope for pregnant women like Kenadie Evans. In a country grappling with high maternal and infant mortality rates, especially in states like Georgia and Louisiana, Magloire and her dedicated team at Cairo Medical Care deliver hundreds of babies every year. The clinic, nestled across from Archbold Grady Hospital, serves as a lifeline for an agricultural community, offering prenatal care and delivery services in an area where over half of all rural counties lack hospital delivery services.

The closure of many labor and delivery units across rural America is a chilling testament to the myriad challenges these regions face. High costs, declining populations, low Medicaid reimbursements, and staffing shortages have crippled healthcare services, leaving expectant mothers with few options for safe delivery.

In a bid to combat this healthcare void, the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a substantial investment in rural programs. These include family medicine residencies equipped with obstetrical training, aimed at bolstering the ranks of rural healthcare providers. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has found that family practice doctors are a crucial part of rural deliveries, with a recent survey indicating they deliver babies in the majority of rural hospitals.

Nationwide, provider teams are stepping in to keep rural obstetric units active. Federal grants are being utilized to train midwives who can contribute to these teams in rural areas. While family medicine doctors in rural locales face challenges such as low reimbursement, high liability costs, and the risk of burnout from being on call constantly, rural residency training programs are being enhanced to increase the teams of family physicians capable of providing obstetric care. Magloire, a product of rural residency training in Kansas, underscores the importance of family physicians in providing comprehensive care, from pregnancy to a gamut of other health concerns, to the communities they serve.

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Rural America's Obstetrical Care Crisis: The Vital Role of Family Physicians - BNN Breaking

Family Medicine

Inuk opera singer and Paralympic medalling doctor appointed to Order of Canada – Yahoo News Canada

Deantha Rae Edmunds, Canadas first Inuk opera singer, is being made a Member of the Order of Canada. (deantha.ca - image credit) Deantha Rae Edmunds, Canadas first Inuk opera singer, is being made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Deantha Edmunds, Canadas first Inuk opera singer, is being made a Member of the Order of Canada. (deantha.ca)

Opera singer and composer Deantha Edmunds and Paralympic medallist Dr. Francine Lemire are part of the latest cohort of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to be named as members of the prestigious Order of Canada.

They were two of the 78 appointments that Gov. Gen. Mary Simon announcedThursday.

Deantha Edmunds, Canada's first Inuk opera singer, was recognized for her original compositions as well as mentoring young Indigenous musicians.

"I'm still in disbelief about this appointment. I'm so touched and it is an absolute honour to be recognized for my work and I'm just thrilled," Edmundstold CBC News.

"Every single day I feel blessed and fortunate to be able to do the work that I do as an artist, and I am always grateful for that. A lot of my work is rooted in truth and reconciliation, and I try to highlight the message of Inuit agency through creative expression."

The award is also special, she said, because it camefrom Mary Simon, Canada's first Inuk governor general, which Edmunds called the"icing on the cake."

Edmunds, who grew up in Corner Brook, said a love of music instilled in her at a young age. She said her father shared stories about choirs and music from church that he heard growing up in Hopedale, Labrador.

In addition to composing and mentoring younger musicians, she has performed for King Charles and Pope Francis, as well as at theFrankfurt Book Fair in 2021, where she sung a prayer in Inuktitut. Edmunds added it was also a important memory because Gov. Gen Simon was in attendance, who understood the language.

Paralympic doctor makes prestigious list

Francine Lemire made the list because of accomplishments as a Paralympic medallist in cross-country skiing she represented Canada at the 1984 Winter Paralympics and at the 1988 Winter Paralympicsas well as for her leadership in family medicine.

Story continues

"I certainly can say that it took me by surprise, but I view it as a validation of my lifetime commitment to family medicine and to improving the lives of Canadians and also [to] better support family physicians," she saidfrom Corner Brook.

"So I'd like to hope that it is an attestation, a validation of the importance of the work of family doctors in a robust primary care system."

Dr. Francine Lemire is one of the new members of the Order of Canada, in recognition for her commitment to medicine as well as her career as a Paralympic medallist. (CBC)

She added it's also recognition for the work she does with her clinical teams, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as her patients.

While Lemire said she's had a wonderful career practicing family medicine in a small town, it's not always possible for doctors to practice in rural areas due to other factors like the needs of spouses, family members or schooling commitments.

At a time when the N.L.'s health care system is under strain, Lemire called for more investment into primary care, which she called the foundation of a good health care system.

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Inuk opera singer and Paralympic medalling doctor appointed to Order of Canada - Yahoo News Canada

Family Medicine

Olean natives return home to begin specialized medical practices – Olean Times Herald

(This is the first of a two-part story on two Olean natives who returned home to practice medicine in their communities. Part two will be printed in Wednesdays edition of the Times Herald.)

OLEAN Matthew and Jessica Witte have called Olean home nearly their entire lives.

The only times they didnt live in their hometown was during medical school when they trained in Binghamton, Syracuse and Latrobe, Pa. But during their residencies, the married couple already knew where they wanted to set up a practice back where it all began.

I think that was always the plan. Both of our families are here, said Dr. Jess Witte, who opened her family practice in Olean in August 2022. It was important to us to be able to spend time with them, especially after being away for college.

Dr. Matthew Witte then joined her earlier this year with his practice in sports medicine, both at Olean Medical Group and even in the same office suite. He said they both realized they werent quite big city people and felt more comfortable in a small-town setting.

It felt like for about 10 years we were constantly three hours away from family, he said. We got used to that distance, but its been nice to finally be back in our hometown.

For Matt, becoming a doctor always seemed like a foregone conclusion his father is Dr. Gilbert Witte, a pulmonologist in Olean, and his mother is former mayor Linda Witte, a retired nurse.

Medical stuff is just what I knew growing up so that was always what I thought I wanted to do, he said. The harder part is deciding what in medicine you want to do, and that took me a while.

For Jess, although her grandmother was a nurse, her interest in medicine came during high school when she had a complicated knee injury. With a great experience with her doctor in Buffalo, both before and after the knee surgery, she said her interest was piqued.

We both were interested in health care at that point and did the New Visions program through BOCES, which helped us both see what some of the different fields were, she said.

WASHINGTON WEST BEGINNINGThe two first met when Jess was in fifth grade and Matt was in fourth grade at Washington West Elementary. They began dating in their teens and have been together ever since.

After high school, Jess went to Binghamton University and Matt joined her a year later. They worked out their schedules to finish their undergrad work at the same time and go to SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse in the same class.

As part of their medical rotations, the pair joined the Rural Medical Scholars Program, which helps students gain experience in rural areas of the state, something they were both interested in since they wanted to practice in Olean.

There were chunks of time where we could come back, Jess said. My extended family is super close with my grandparents, so I think being around and being with family was really important.

We did a lot of our rotations actually here in Olean during our third and fourth years of medical school, Matt said. We rotated with a lot of the local doctors here when we were still med students.

After finishing at SUNY Upstate, the Wittes served their residencies in family medicine in Latrobe, outside Pittsburgh, Pa. At the end of their residencies, Jess took the first leap and started the family medicine practice back home, offering general primary care for ages 12 and up with a specialization in obesity medicine.

In residency, one of our attendings started a weight management clinic in our residency office and I was really interested in that, she said. I split some elective time with her and was able to see a lot of her patients and help her because shes only one person and it grew very quickly.

When Jesss attending physician went on maternity leave, she took on a bigger role in seeing the clinics patients and keeping it going during those months. At the end of her residency, she said she had gained enough experience to qualify for the exam to be a diplomat of obediency medicine.

ESTABLISHED IN OLEANNow set up in Olean, Jess said the obesity medicine portion of her practice includes lifestyle intervention with diet and exercise programs as well as medication management and seeing patients in the office.

I had a lot of the building blocks ready to go since I watched somebody just a couple of years before me start it on their own, she said. I knew a lot of pieces that I needed to build it so it made it a lot easier than just starting from scratch.

Meanwhile, Matt did one more year of sports medicine fellowship training at the University at Buffalo. But he said it was his rotation with Dr. Mohaned Al-Humadi in Olean that most helped guide him in that direction.

I knew in med school I really liked ortho and musculoskeletal stuff and that really resonated with me, he said. When I realized primary care sports medicine is a specialty, which is basically non-operative orthopedics, thats what I ended up doing.

Still trained primarily in family medicine, Matt said he also sees patients with minor or acute problems for other primary care providers to help with availability to get more patients in. However, his main focus is sports medicine, which he described as orthopedics without surgery as well as concussion patients.

So things like treating fractures non-operatively putting splints or casts on people and monitoring their X-rays to make sure theyre healing properly, he explained. He also treats muscle, ligament and tendon tears as well as more chronic muscle or skeletal pain, arthritis and ultrasonic-guided injections and procedures.

If they need surgery, I know these guys pretty well and I know who to get them to, Matt added. I also know a lot of the specialists in Buffalo since thats where I did my training, so if they ever need to see somebody out of town, I know pretty well who to send them to up there.

Matt also trained with concussion specialists in Buffalo who have done a lot of recent research into more active treatments. He said its a multi-faceted approach that includes treating everything from mood swings to migraines to ADHD symptoms.

Now that the Wittes are seeing patients from several different healthcare areas in their hometown community, the two cant wait to continue growing their practices through collaborations with established practitioners and upcoming students.

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Olean natives return home to begin specialized medical practices - Olean Times Herald

Family Medicine

Major hospital, healthcare projects to shape Region in 2024 – The Times of Northwest Indiana

The public will soon get a chance to check out the new $200 million Franciscan Health Crown Point Hospital, which opens on Jan. 28 after years of construction.

The new hospital at the Interstate 65 and U.S. 231 interchange will host a public open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13.

The new hospital replacing the nearly 50-year-old formerSt. Anthony Medical Center at 1201 S. Main St. in Crown Point is one of the major healthcare projects that will come online, get started or make significant progress in the new year. After getting a record $30 million donation from The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, Franciscan Health also plans to build a 71,000-square-foot, three-story cancer center at the new hospital in Crown Point that's slated to be completed by 2026.

This spring, UChicago Medicine plans to open a $121 million, two-story, 130,000-square-foot micro-hospital at Interstate 65 and 109th Avenue in Crown Point. It will be its first freestanding medical facility in Indiana and its largest facility outside of its home base in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

UChicago Medicine, which also partnered with Methodist Hospitals on neonatal intensive care services at its Southlake Campus in Merrillville and Northlake Campus in Gary, is expanding its footprint in the Region beyond a few doctors' offices. The new micro-hospital will have an emergency room, an inpatient unit for short stays and a comprehensive cancer center. It also will have an outpatient surgery center, imaging infusion and laboratory services.

Doctors specializing in cancer, cardiology, digestive diseases, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, transplant medicine and womens health also will occupy a new medical office there.

Lake County Economic Alliance Interim President and CEO Don Babcock said the new UChicago Medicine and Franciscan Health hospitals likely would spark more medical development in the area.

"I believe we'll continue to see health-related development," he said. "Over the last 15 to 20 years, healthcare providers have been investing in quality hospitals that are in greater competition with Chicago. You're likely to see ancillary development around the hospitals. Professional offices will want to be close to those facilities."

They also will help spark more general development, Babcock said.

"It has a multiplier effect," he said. "Health care tends to have high-paying jobs. With that comes more wealth, disposable income and development."

Community Healthcare System filed plans to build a cancer center at 10191Broadway in Crown Point. The three-story, 68,000-square-foot facility would be next to the stroke and rehabilitation center it opened in Crown Point in 2019.

Construction is close to being completed at Community Healthcare System's relocated Immediate Care Center on Calumet Avenue in Munster. The 32,000-square-foot, two-story building will replace the existing immediate care facility at 1946 45th St. in Munster, which will be turned into physician office space.

It will treat common injuries and illnesses, provide occupational health care and host doctor's offices for pediatricians, family medicine physicians and ear, nose the throat doctors.

Spokeswoman Karin Saltanovitz said it was slated to open in early 2024 but no date had yet been set.

Franciscan Health will open its new seven-story 199-inpatient bed hospital at12750 Saint Francis Dr. in Crown Point by the end of January. It will be able to expand to 300 rooms and expand its diagnostic and treatment centers as demand warrants.

Michigan City-based Tonn and Blank Construction, which is owned by Franciscan Alliance, constructed the building, which includes an attached medical office. It constructedbathrooms, headwalls and medical office exam rooms off-site before installing them at the construction site.

The open house will include tours, refreshments, live entertainment, chair massages, kids' activities and live ice sculpting. People can get free health screenings, including for body mass index, bone density, blood glucose, blood pressure, pulse oximetry and spirometry.

Franciscan Health places to raffle off prizes like a boombox speaker, an Apple watch, a mountain bike, an Apple iPad and a 75-inch TV.

NWI Business Ins and Outs: Jet's Pizza and vegan restaurant open; Chase Bank closes; Crown Point Toys and Collectibles moves

The United Steelworkers union was told not to expect any changes after Nippon Steel buys U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion but still has many unanswered questions, including how committed the new owner is to making steel in America.

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Major hospital, healthcare projects to shape Region in 2024 - The Times of Northwest Indiana