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Fairview medical office brings more women’s, mental health services to Highland Park

Saint Paul Pioneer Press - 3/7/2023

The healthcare side of St. Paul’s Highland Bridge development is complete, anchored by a relocated M Health Fairview facility with expanded women’s and mental health services.

Representatives from Fairview, developer Ryan Companies and the city of St. Paul celebrated the opening of the medical office — which includes dermatology, mental health, foot and ankle, and radiology clinics in addition to Fairview’s primary care and rehabilitation — at an event Tuesday.

“The fact that we get the opportunity and privilege to continue to serve this community — we’ve been here a long time — but in this development in this beautiful building is really special to us,” said Fairview CEO and President James Hereford. “And we’ll continue to look at how do we best serve this neighborhood. How do we program, how do we think about the services that this particular neighborhood needs, this community needs, and make sure we’re attending to those.”

The Fairview clinic moved only a few blocks east from the old location at 2155 Ford Parkway. However, the new location has almost doubled the space for providers and clients, anticipating population growth driven by the development of housing, office and retail spaces as part of the Highland Bridge master plan.

According to a Fairview press release, 8,500 new residents are anticipated to move into the development during the next 10 years. However, that movement has perhaps been slower than expected when developers broke ground on the medical office in December 2021, as a key market-rate housing developer of Highland Bridge, Weidner Apartment Homes, indefinitely paused construction last year.

In response to development uncertainty, Fairview communications specialist Jill Fischer said in a statement that the smaller clinic has been an “integral part” of this neighborhood for more than 30 years.

“Our expanded clinic is a reinvestment in a growing community that will make healthcare access easier than ever,” she said.

The expanded Fairview clinic now offers women’s health appointments five days a week and hired an additional OB/GYN, according to Fischer. Midwifery services also will be available at the new location.

Behavioral health services and counseling will now be available for children, teens, and adults both virtually and in person at the clinic. The location also offers behavioral health home services for clients insured through Medical Assistance or a Prepaid Medical Assistance Plan to better coordinate care for those with chronic conditions.

“This team-based service is designed to meet patients where they are at, by addressing social determinants of health and setting realistic whole-person health goals,” said Fischer in the statement.

At the opening, St. Paul Ward 3 Council Member Chris Tolbert expressed support for job creation at the medical office, the site’s history as a Ford Motor Co. manufacturing campus that provided “good union living wage jobs” to the area.

“Today is a really exciting day because I know we had union workers build this building. We have union workers across this entire site building and constructing housing and constructing other units,” said Tolbert. “But today is an important day because these are permanent living-wage jobs that are going to be here.”

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