or now, the long-vacant stretch of land in east Gainesville goes almost unnoticed. Drivers on Southeast Hawthorne Road whiz by on their way to somewhere else. On the property, sunlight filters through a partial canopy of oaks and native shrubs.

Before long, the site will be home to a medical destination that has long been sought in the area: UF Health Urgent Care Center – Eastside. The 10,000-square-foot medical practice, scheduled to debut in mid-2024, is the result of a unique collaboration between UF Health, the city of Gainesville and Alachua County.

Yet the urgent care center is just the start: Officials envision the site becoming home to a transportation, medical, employment and perhaps retail hub for one of the city’s most underserved areas.

Gainesville and Alachua County are contributing $2.25 million each in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help build the center. UF Health will be responsible for ongoing operations. In exchange for city-funded road development at the site, UF Health is retaining about 4 acres for the urgent care facility and also donating some land at the 21.7-acre site to Gainesville for its new bus transfer station on the city’s East Side.

“Over the years, many residents have expressed the need for health care closer to home. It is very fulfilling to bring convenient urgent care to the heart of East Gainesville but this is also about more than a medical clinic. Ideally, UF Health’s partnership with the city and county will be a catalyst that improves residents’ quality of life,” said David R. Nelson, M.D., UF’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of UF Health.

The center will feature eight examination rooms, two procedure rooms, an X-ray area and a community room. It is expected to be open seven days a week, with hours extending into the evening. Having an urgent care center will augment

UF Health’s presence in the area, which includes the Eastside family medicine practice on Waldo Road.

Discussions about how to better serve East Gainesville residents’ medical needs have simmered for a long time, said Marvin Dewar, M.D., J.D., chief executive officer of UF Health Physicians and a senior associate dean at UF’s College of Medicine. The talks began to crystallize when city and county officials approached UF Health about using COVID-19 relief funds for a medical campus.

Dewar said it’s important for the East Side to have a place for quick care without an appointment or waiting in an emergency room. That includes a place where a fisherman can get a fish hook injury treated, a dehydrated worker can receive IV fluids quickly and a child who sprains an ankle on the weekend can get an X-ray.

Officials decided to proceed with the urgent care center only after hearing from residents about their medical wants and needs.

“An urgent care center addresses a void in the continuum of care. This level of care really meets a community need,” Dewar said. “As we listened to the community, what we heard was this: ‘We really need a place to receive care without an appointment before work, after work and on the weekends.’”

Discussions about future development at the site go well beyond the initial urgent care center. Dental and mental health services are a possibility, Dewar said. So are smoking cessation and other quality-of-life programs. A community garden that allows residents to grow or pick healthy food is also being considered.

Brad Pollitt, UF Health Shands’ vice president of facilities, sees the $5.7 million urgent care center as the centerpiece of an emerging mixed-use development and transportation hub. He is particularly encouraged because the site adjoins the Gainesville Technology Entrepreneurship Center’s high-tech incubator and housing is under development nearby. The community gardens, similar to those in several city parks, could help keep people invested in and connected to the site beyond just medical visits, he said.

After the center is built, enough space will remain to add another 15,000-square-foot clinical facility in the future. The city is using $4 million in federal money to build the transit center near Southeast Sixth Avenue, which is expected to be completed in fall 2024.

Pollitt is also hopeful that the new development could spawn another highly prized but elusive asset nearby: a neighborhood grocery store.

“This development will eliminate a health care desert. It also has the potential to close a job desert, a housing desert and a food desert. There’s a lot of things this collective development will do as it grows out over the next decade,” he said.

Alachua County Commissioner Ken Cornell, whose district includes the urgent care site, said it’s no secret that East Gainesville has lacked convenient access to urgent medical care, a grocery store and community amenities commonly found in other areas. The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for accessible health care so using federal funds to jump-start the urgent care center was a “no brainer,” he said. Placing an urgent care center in East Gainesville also potentially benefits residents who live farther East in places like Hawthorne, Cornell added.

“It just became clearly obvious — like a red, flashing light — that there is a critical need in East Gainesville. The urgent care center is a great start. But what really got me excited was this idea of a health care campus that could deal with preventive nutrition, urgent care and, hopefully someday, primary care to serve as a resource hub for people who live in east Gainesville and eastern Alachua County,” he said.

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward Jr. said the chance to work with UF Health, Alachua County and the federal government is a special opportunity.

“While I’m excited about the near-term, positive effects of a health clinic on Hawthorne Road, the farther-reaching economic, health and general quality of life improvements for our ‘out east’ neighbors are more than anyone could have predicted just a couple of years ago. We are looking at an all-in public investment exceeding $25 million in a relatively short period of time, not including what the city has already invested nearby at Heartwood and Cornerstone. I am thrilled to see this all moving forward for our neighbors and I’m anticipating the private sector stepping up for East Gainesville as well.”

One of those needs is having a public transit hub close to a medical facility, said Lakesha M. Butler, Pharm.D., the chief diversity officer for UF Health. Ultimately, Butler said, the site will be equipped and ready to do much more than address transportation and acute medical needs. A community room can host a multitude of health education and other pertinent programs, including healthy food choices, mental health and diabetes education. She also envisions it as a place to learn about financial literacy and professional development, including topics such as resume and interviewing skills. Still, the services and programs offered at the site should be heavily influenced by residents’ needs and desires. Officials held a community forum in late February to solicit input from those who live nearby.

“When partnering with the community, it’s important to do so in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. Ideally, this complex will not just focus on health care but on the many factors that affect the health and holistic well-being of people in our community,” she said.

Pastor Gerard Duncan, of Prayers By Faith Outreach Ministries, has been advocating for the underserved since he arrived in Gainesville more than three decades ago. His Northwest Fourth Street church is housed in the Old Mount Carmel Baptist Church, a National Register of Historic Places site that was a magnet for Gainesville’s civil rights movement.

Against that backdrop, Duncan said he is encouraged by officials’ commitment to improve health and economic disparities in Alachua County. UF Health’s Screen, Test & Protect program during the COVID-19 pandemic had a strong emphasis on outreach to traditionally underserved communities, he said. Likewise, the urgent care center project is another sign of a deep, renewed commitment from local government and UF Health leaders.

“It’s one of the most well-thought-out projects the city and county could have done with UF. It is going to change the trajectory of quality of life for people in East Gainesville,” he said.

As Duncan’s roots grew in the community over the years, so did his awareness of the many chronic diseases that are prevalent in East Gainesville, such as diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. To address that, work is underway to bring the community resource paramedicine program, or CRP, to the urgent care center site.

Gainesville Fire Rescue’s CRP aims to reduce overuse of paramedic and emergency room services by pairing frequent 911 users and other vulnerable patients with resources to help them better self-manage their care. During a six-month period in 2020, the CRP program in other city neighborhoods reduced emergency room use and hospital admissions by 28% and 62%, respectively.

A CRP presence is a welcome addition to the East Gainesville urgent care site, Duncan noted.

“Tailoring health care to the needs of specific communities will greatly benefit the East Gainesville community,” he said.
Duncan said he got to know UF Health leaders and physicians during his work with the Screen, Test & Protect Program. That program showed him the sincerity and depth of their commitment to doing more for traditionally underserved areas. And it opened a welcoming door for him to make the case for an East Gainesville urgent care center.

He said, “At that moment, I knew my voice was heard.”