Spokane Falls Family Clinic, a nonprofit health-care provider that serves low-income families, says it plans to occupy most of a new addition to the Northeast Community Center, in the Hillyard neighborhood, where it plans to add a second medical clinic and move its dental clinic next year.

The two clinics currently employ a total of 50 full-time dental and medical staff members, and 25 to 30 additional medical and support staff will be hired for the new facility, including one new physician, says clinic administrator Randy Hartman.

The clinic, which is a unit of the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, based in Toppenish, Wash., has outgrown its facility here at 120 W. Mission, and had been looking for a new location for its dental clinic, Hartman says.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Community Center, located at 4001 N. Cook, has been building a three-level, 31,000-square-foot, $6 million addition. Northeast Community Center board President Bill Duffy says the organization originally intended to have the Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) clinic occupy the new space, but that clinic declined to do so.

CHAS has operated its clinic in the community center since the mid-1980s, but has chosen not to renew its lease at the end of this year, Duffy says.

When Spokane Falls Family Clinic was approached to replace the CHAS clinic, the timing was perfect, so the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic signed a 15-year lease for 20,000 square feet of space in the new addition, Hartman says. The community center plans to give the clinic a tenant improvement credit of between $500,000 and $1 million to cover interior construction, he says.

He declines to disclose the cost of the tenant improvements, saying the project contractor, Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, hasn't given him a final figure yet. Work on those improvements, which will include adding walls for patient exam rooms and a surgical suite, is expected to begin in July.

Spokane Falls Family Clinic will open its new medical clinic on the main floor of the new addition early next January, to prevent a gap in services when the CHAS clinic leaves, Hartman says. The clinic also will continue to operate its main clinic on Mission, and will continue to focus on serving low-income families. It currently sees an average of more than 100 patients a day.

Hartman says a primary goal of the clinic is to care for families with young children, so it can get the children started with preventive medical and dental care while they are still young.

The dental clinic, which currently sees an average of 60 patients a day on Mission, plans to move to the top floor of the new addition next March. The dental clinic will include 15 treatment chairs and accommodations for dental surgery, says the Spokane District Dental Society Foundation, which will continue to provide volunteer dentists from the community for the clinic.

Patients who visit Spokane Falls Family Clinic generally are covered by state and federal health-care programs, and a small percentage by private insurance. The clinic provides care on a limited basis to uninsured patients who aren't enrolled in a government program, with fees for their care determined on a sliding fee scale. Grants from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration help subsidize the clinic's costs, Hartman says.

The medical clinic currently employs four physicians, two nurse practitioners, and a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who will remain at the Mission Avenue facility. The clinic's pharmacy also will remain there. The dental clinic's four dentists all will move to the new facility, and additional dental care will be provided by dentists completing their residencies and other Spokane dentists volunteering their time. Hartman says the additional staff at the new facility will be paid from patient fee reimbursements.