Family doctors now closer to home for Jonesville, Newberry residents
Residents of northwest Gainesville, Jonesville and Newberry now have a new family practice that’s close to home. UF&Shands Family Medicine at Jonesville will start receiving patients Thursday (Nov. 1). The UF&Shands family practice is the seventh serving residents in the greater Gainesville area.
“We are thrilled to open this new facility and expand our mission of providing truly comprehensive family health care close to where people live and work,” said R. Whit Curry Jr., M.D., chair of the department of community health and family medicine in the UF College of Medicine.
The practice offers adult and pediatric comprehensive care for patients ages 5 and older, health maintenance checkups, preventive health care counseling, immunizations, sports physicals and women’s care. The team also performs minor surgical procedures such as skin biopsies and lesion removals.
The new 3,600-square-foot facility at 13611 NW 1st Lane, in the heart of Jonesville, features nine exam rooms that will accommodate an estimated 4,200 patient visits during the first year of operation. The practice offers same-day appointments.
“Along with the recent opening of Family Medicine at Main and the soon to open multispecialty practice site on 39th Avenue, the opening of our Jonesville practice continues the UF&Shands commitment to provide world-class health care in modern venues conveniently located close to where people live and work,” said Marvin Dewar, M.D., J.D., the senior associate dean, chief executive officer and chief medical officer of UF Physicians, the clinical practice arm of the UF College of Medicine.
In addition to providing care to the community, the UF department of community health and family medicine produces about 10 new family physicians each year. To date, of 247 UF family medicine residency graduates, 160 practice in Florida, including 72 in Gainesville. The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts a shortage of 40,000 family medicine physicians by 2020.
The existing UF&Shands family medicine practices in the Gainesville area are UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main, Family Medicine at Haile Plantation, Family Medicine at Hampton Oaks,
Family Medicine at Old Town, the UF Shands Eastside Community Practice and the Shands Medical Group at Magnolia Parke.“We celebrate the opening of another new practice, but the people who truly benefit are the thousands of patients and families who will receive care here over the coming years,” Curry said. “This is a wonderful resource for the community.”