Clinic staff has telephone access to physicians

Each Take Care Health Clinic has a collaborating practice agreement with a physician who is available to staff by telephone during clinic hours.

The collaborating physician visits the clinic once a month to answer staff questions and provide additional guidance. The physician also may receive patient referrals from the clinic, although not all collaborating physicians are in the same towns as their clinics.

The Rockford clinic’s collaborating physician is Dr. Randall Robyn, who recently opened family practice Preston Scott Medical Group at 1906 Pierce Court in Belvidere.

“It seems to be a mutually beneficial thing,” Robyn said. “They can get supervision and guidance when they need it, and we’re able to share patients with primary care referrals. And if patients have something more acute than what the clinic can treat, they will have a physician name to get hooked up with.”

The collaborating physician for the Belvidere clinic is Dr. Hemalini Thakkar, a family practice doctor with Westgate Family Medicine at 3381 N. Main St. in St. Charles.

Wendy Edwards, Take Care’s lead nurse practitioner for the Rockford area, said she doesn’t anticipate Belvidere patients driving that far. Staff at the Belvidere clinic is compiling a list of local physician referrals, she said.

Thakkar also has a collaborating agreement with a Chicago area Take Care clinic and had requested another. The Belvidere clinic was the closest available, Edwards said.

HealthyRockford.com staff writer Deborah Austin may be reached at 815-987-1352 or at daustin@rrstar.com.