In this recent article in the Hays Free Press, ARC Chief Medical Officer Manish M. Naik, MD, shares insight into ARC's plans to expand in Hays County to ensure that all patients' needs are filled.
"With Kyle being one of the fastest growing communities in our southern region, we found very quickly that our main Kyle location, ARC Plum Creek, was so busy we recognized the need for a second location, ARC Center Street. Now those are two of our busiest locations," said Dr. Naik.
ARC is one of the largest physician-owned healthcare providers in Central Texas; currently with four ARC clinics in Hays County: ARC Kyle Plum Creek, ARC Buda, ARC Dripping Springs, and ARC Center Street in Kyle. Within the next five years, another ARC location is anticipated to be built in Buda.
Adding specialties as well as locations
ARC's second clinic in Kyle recently expanded its services to offer endocrinology and diabetes care. Farheen Yousuf, MD, Endocrinologist, joined the staff at ARC Center Street, seeing patients ages 18 and older. In addition to general endocrinology care, Dr. Yousuf provides diabetes services through ARC's Diabetes Care program, which offers care for patients living with any type of diabetes, including Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes.
"Endocrinology is one of the areas that a lot of primary care doctors do a fair bit of, so our family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatricians do some endocrinology. A lot of those doctors manage some basic thyroid conditions and diabetes. But as we've grown as an organization, we found a need for some additional expertise in some of those areas," Dr. Naik said. "As our group grows, and we really wanted to try to meet the needs of our patients, we're now adding an endocrinologist that will not only do some of those thyroid and other hormonal conditions but can also address some of the more complex diabetes patients. We anticipate we will grow the number of endocrinologists in our group over time."
ARC offers connected care
Dr. Naik explained that patients who come into any ARC location will get a continuity of care experience, including extended availability hours, which may be difficult to find elsewhere. In fact, ARC Kyle Plum Creek is one of five ARC After Hours Clinics that is open on weekends, evenings, and holidays.
"Because we have all of these different specialties under our own umbrella, and they all use the same electronic health record, when you see any of the providers at ARC, you get complete connected care or continuity of care experience. It's never an issue of [wondering] what happened at that visit and what was done. Every one of our doctors can very easily tell in an up-to-date fashion what has happened at all your other visits. It becomes a really coordinated care experience, and all our different specialties work very collaboratively and closely together to make sure our patients get the best care," Dr. Naik adds.
When more clinics were being added in Kyle, there was initially a need for additional primary care services in the growing community, according to Dr. Naik. Still, it has since become like another hub location area for ARC, with an eye on adding different specialties.
Make an appointment today
To make an appointment at any ARC Clinic, call the clinic most convenient to you, book on the ARC website, or through ARC MyChart.