Faith-Based Health Care Group Expanding to Holland with New Primary Care Office
A faith-based health care provider that uses a membership model with a monthly fee will expand into the Holland area next year with a primary care office and with plans for further growth across the region in the years ahead.
Christian Healthcare Centers Inc. recently began construction on a $2.3 million, 7,067-square-foot primary care office at 9640 Adams St. in Holland Township, just east of the I-196 interchange. The location also will become the new administrative headquarters for Christian Healthcare Centers that’s a closer proximity to where some staff reside in Ottawa County.
The Holland-area office will house primary care providers and an X-ray and diagnostics lab. The location will become the third primary care office for the Plainfield Township-based Christian Healthcare Centers, which opened a Newaygo location two years ago and has a primary care location off East Beltline Avenue, south of Five Mile Road, that opened in 2017.
Christian Healthcare Centers has about 1,000 patients in the Holland area who have used the Grand Rapids office for primary care. Extending into the Holland area provides better access to those patients and gives the organization a presence in Ottawa County and the lakeshore market.
The nonprofit organization for years had been wanting to move into the lakeshore market, but “took a step in a different direction” by first developing an office in Newaygo, President and CEO Mark Blocher told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
As patient volumes from the lakeshore grew, Christian Healthcare Centers decided to move ahead with an expansion in the Holland area.
“We wanted to have kind of a blanket around Grand Rapids where people have easy access to us,” Blocher said. “We kept getting more and more people from the lakeshore and we kept hearing from more and more people that care was in short supply. It was taking longer to get in to be seen, and people were having a harder time getting the kind of visits they wanted.
“So, we said, ‘We’ve got 1,000 people that are already coming to the Grand Rapids office. There’s probably at least that many and probably more than that that would come if we were in Holland.’”
A former professor at Cornerstone University, Blocher started Christian Healthcare Centers in 2015 as a medical ministry to improve access to care in underserved markets.
Christian Healthcare Centers does not participate with health insurance and instead uses a membership model to offer access to primary care and some specialty medical services. Members pay additional costs if they are referred for a diagnostic test or a procedure not offered at Christian Healthcare Centers, which has referral arrangements with other facilities to provide care at discounted rates.
The organization charges adult members $90 a month and $20 for children ages two to 18. Members who are 65 or older pay $80 a month, and college students pay $40 a month. Memberships for newborns and children under two years old are $35 a month.
The monthly fee gets members unlimited access to in-person and virtual primary care visits that last 30, 60 or 90 minutes, plus X-rays and diagnostic lab services that typically come with an annual physical.
Between the existing Grand Rapids and Newaygo offices, Christian Healthcare Centers has about 3,500 member patients, Blocher said. The Newaygo office also provides in-office procedures and minor outpatient surgeries such as colonoscopies and endoscopy.
The new Holland-area office will house four primary care providers and support staff and serve as Christian Healthcare Centers’ administrative headquarters. Grand Rapids-based CopperRock Construction Inc. serves as the general contractor on the project.
Christian Healthcare Centers targets the Holland office to open next spring, Blocher said. The organization is financing the project through capital raised form private equity investors and a bank loan and is raising $350,000 through a capital campaign to pay for medical equipment, furnishings, information technology hardware and medical supplies.
As work on the Holland office proceeds, Christian Healthcare Centers has visions to open at least one more primary care office in the next few years, possibly on the southeast side of Grand Rapids toward Caledonia, Blocher said.
“Beyond that, we’re probably going to start looking at some of those outlying communities” surrounding Grand Rapids, such as Hastings or Lowell, he said.
Christian Healthcare Centers also needs to develop a new Grand Rapids office to replace the existing rented space once the lease expires.
The organization envisions someday developing a multi-specialty outpatient surgery center that has an attached birthing center, although “we’re several years away from taking a step in that direction,” Blocher said.