A collaborative effort in Lafayette is growing.
Indiana University Health Arnett is joining the Intersection Connection partnership that aims to improve the lives of area youth. The medical group will open a health clinic at the yet-to-be-built Lafayette Family YMCA facility on the Ivy Tech-Lafayette campus.
IU Health Arnett C.E.O. Al Gatmaitan says having both organizations under one roof has many benefits. Those include cost sharing and transition of medical patients to healthy lifestyle practices offered by the YMCA.
"An expensive aquatic center or gym, workout equipment, we don't have to duplicate and we can make sure the Y's facilities are fully utilized. Plus, the association and being on the same campus will make it easier for patients to transition from supervised acute care to a good healthy lifestyle."
He says plans call for three-to-five family practice doctors, a medical-surgical weight-loss center, sports medicine, and rehabilitation services.
Gatmaitan says IU Health Arnett has an office on Old U.S. 231, and on Greenbush and Salem in central Lafayette, but nothing serving the southeast side.
"This is an area that's growing, so we really believe [the new clinic] will help increase access to our care."
There’s no timeline for building the shared facility, but Gatmaitan hopes it’s operating in 2014.