Linn County’s newest urgent and primary care clinic opened in Lebanon on March 1 — the latest local branch for regional provider Nova Health. The opening marks an expansion of the company’s targeted efforts to bring more healthcare services to rural communities.
Currently, the clinic is only for urgent care patients, though its primary care services are slated to begin on April 15. Nova Health says that its venture into Linn County is due to a need for more health services in the rural parts of the county and state.
“We are expanding up and down the I-5 corridor or other areas we find are classified as rural and have a need,” said Stephanie Rhoades, Vice President of Operations for Nova Health.
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The Lebanon location is Nova Health’s first clinic in Linn or Benton counties. The next closest location is in Junction City in Lane County. Another new primary and urgent care clinic is also opening in Dallas, Oregon in late April.
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The company also operates in Washington, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado — those last two being the most recent expansions into new states. Nova Health’s first locations in Oregon were in Eugene and Springfield, but it also operates clinics in Roseburg, Cottage Grove, Klamath Falls, Veneta, Pleasant Hill, Oak Ridge and Florence.
Rhoades said that the company’s first clue that another local clinic was needed in this area came when the Junction City branch continued to see many patients coming in from rural Linn County and parts of Benton County.
“We do see a fair amount of patients coming into that clinic from Benton and Linn counties,” Rhoades said. “That was the first indicator for us.”
This area has mostly been served by Samaritan Health and The Corvallis Clinic for the many decades, making the arrival of a new player in the healthcare landscape a significant development. Lebanon itself is the site of Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, as well as Samaritan’s sprawling Health Sciences Campus.
For its part, a Samaritan Health statement earlier this week welcomed Nova Health to the area.
“The health and well-being of our community members is important to us and we welcome Nova to the local medical community,” said an email from Samaritan spokesperson Ian Rollins.
Nova’s business model is primarily targeted toward expanding to rural communities, avoiding the larger marketplaces where there’s already plenty of competition.
“We do not feel that we’re best suited to big cities,” Rhoades said. “We’re not going to necessarily compete with the big providers or carriers in an area. If we didn’t feel there was a need, we wouldn’t be there.”
Rhoades said other locations in Oregon are scheduled to break ground soon, too, though the details of where they will be and what services they will provide are not yet public.
