Portland, Oregon (PRWEB) October 16, 2014
The National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) today announced that it has opened a new healthcare clinic in Beaverton, Oregon, that will focus on naturopathic medicine primary care and Chinese medicine therapies. The new clinic is the medical college’s second natural medicine teaching clinic and the first located in Portland’s suburbs. The NCNM Beaverton Clinic will hold a public open house on Oct. 18 from 1 to 5 p.m.
The 1,760 square-foot NCNM Beaverton Clinic offers naturopathic medicine from licensed primary care physicians at highly affordable rates well below the market average. The clinic expects to offer Chinese medicine to patients in January 2015. Adjacent to Beaverton’s Social Security Administration office on SW Second Street near Lombard, the clinic is credentialed by OHP Open Card and CareOregon, as well as several commercial insurance carriers.
The launch of the NCNM Beaverton Clinic marks the first time that the college has expanded its footprint outside the South Portland area. The 20,000 square-foot NCNM Clinic, established in 2009, is the school’s main clinic, located on the college’s campus.
The new clinic replaces a temporary clinic space at Beaverton’s Elsie Stuhr Center where NCNM offered low-cost healthcare services for uninsured and under-served patients. The transition to the NCNM Beaverton Clinic will allow the college’s bilingual staff and licensed medical practitioners to see patients in a fully appointed medical facility and expand their ability to see others in the Beaverton community who want to experience natural medicine.
PATIENTS WELCOME THE TRANSITION
Former Elsie Stuhr patients have welcomed the change. Becky Richter has been an NCNM community clinic patient since spring 2013 and easily made the transition. Richter, who lived in Beaverton at the time, had heard about the naturopathic doctors seeing patients in Beaverton from her sister who was a patient at NCNM’s Elsie Stuhr community clinic. Suffering from digestive complaints that medical doctors couldn’t diagnose or treat, Richter was glad to have found help at NCNM’s naturopathic community clinic conveniently located near her home, she said.
Besides convenience, Richter found the Elsie Stuhr naturopathic clinic “really affordable. Not only could I see naturopathic physicians, but I could get tests and labs at reduced rates,” which her insurance company wouldn’t cover. “It was really nice to access a clinic that provided good care, along with medical labs and tests that I could pay for.”
Richter said she’s glad to continue her care in the new facility. “The NCNM doctors and students really want to involve me in my own care so I can take responsibility for my own health,” an added bonus that she hadn’t expected.
A RANGE OF SERVICES AND LOW-COST PAYMENT OPTIONS
The Beaverton clinic offers a wide range of services and hours, a number of low-cost payment options (including financial assistance for those in need), lab services and a highly discounted herbal medicinary. The clinic’s naturopathic physicians are licensed in Oregon to prescribe and review pharmaceutical medications in addition to herbal medications. Both naturopathic and Chinese medicine are highly effective for a range of healthcare conditions, from common ailments like allergies, or colds and flu, to chronic and acute conditions including diabetes, gastrointestinal and heart disease.
NCNM President David J. Schleich, PhD, noted that the new medical facility would appeal to patients who have been seeing NCNM practitioners locally as well as new patients who want to experience preventive natural medicine, but have never had the opportunity.
“By expanding our campus with a new location in Beaverton, we’re improving our ability to offer low-cost natural medicine to Washington County’s growing population, some of whom remain uninsured due to language and cultural barriers. At the same time, we’re increasing the opportunity to serve insured new patients who want holistic health care, but are unable to travel to our Portland campus clinic,” Schleich said.
ABOUT NCNM
Founded in Portland in 1956, NCNM is the oldest naturopathic medical school in North America and an educational leader in classical Chinese medicine and CAM research. NCNM offers five accredited degree programs in naturopathic and classical Chinese medicine, and research, nutrition and global health. The medical college receives approximately 40,000 patient visits per year at the campus-based NCNM Clinic and numerous low-cost community clinics located throughout the Portland area. Visit http://www.ncnm.edu for more information.