In the midst of all kinds of uncertainty, Vancouver Clinic is continuing to expand its operations.
The physician-owned Vancouver health care business recently opened a new primary care clinic in Camas to serve eastern Clark County. Vancouver Clinic has plans to bring another neighborhood clinic online later this month.
That clinic, across the street from Firstenburg Community Center in Vancouver, will be the 11th facility operated by Vancouver Clinic.
The Camas clinic is a two-story, 26,400-square-foot clinic that offers internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, urgent care, ophthalmology and a vision center for eye exams.
“During this whole pandemic, we’ve been expanding like crazy,” Vancouver Clinic CEO Mark Mantei said.
The Camas location has a high-tech patient experience, Mantei said. Patients use a phone-scanning system to check in, and vitals are uploaded over Bluetooth into computers, which should streamline the process and prevent errors, Mantei said.
The location also has a focus on patient privacy. Exam rooms have private hallway entrances, and patients will be weighed in exam rooms instead of a common area.
Vancouver Clinic has aggressively expanded since 2016, Mantei said, because of unmet medical needs in Clark County. Mantei said the senior population is growing faster than any other demographic locally, and that too many residents had to face long waits for care, or travel to Portland.
Vancouver Clinic believes its locally based health care model also shows that the business cares about the community. Mantei said Vancouver Clinic has hired 49 clinicians this year.
Vancouver Clinic offers six clinics with urgent care locations in Ridgefield, Battle Ground, Salmon Creek, and at 87th Avenue and Columbia Tech Center in Vancouver.
“There’s a saying that, ‘All politics is local,’ ” Mantei said. “We believe all health care is local, too.”
The clinic scheduled to open later this month will be similar to the Vancouver Plaza location. Both those locations are neighborhood clinics, which are operated in conjunction with the health insurance company Humana and focus on those with higher needs and, generally, people who are older.
Health education classes, individual and group counseling, exercise classes, group activities and wellness presentations are available through neighborhood clinics. The clinics can also coordinate with social services agencies, Mantei said.
The more holistic care approach is what differentiates neighborhood clinics.
“It’s geared toward the senior or disabled person with a lot of chronic illness,” he said. “This is really focused on a lot of individual attention and making a difference in those patients’ lives.”
