St. Luke’s Hospital officials have worked for more than a year to find a way to offer more services in Arnold, and they now have plans to open a physicians’ office space there, said Jim Snider, vice president of physicians’ network.
The health care provider, which has hospitals in Des Peres and Chesterfield, will open the physicians offices at 874 Arnold Commons Drive, in a space that previously housed a Chinese restaurant.
Snider said the physician offices are expected to open by Jan. 1, 2024.
He said the hospital serves more than 1,000 patients who live in the Arnold area, so the physicians’ offices are needed there
St. Luke’s already has an urgent care facility that opened in 2020 at 832 Arnold Commons Drive.
“Our objective is to not have patients drive any further than they need to for health care,” Snider said. “We really wanted it side by side with the urgent care, but the space didn’t work out with what was available. At least, we are still in the same area of the urgent care. It is just on the other side of Dierbergs.”
Snider said the physician offices will be staffed by four doctors or nurse practitioners and employ up to 12 support staff members.
He said it will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
“Our urgent care is there for weekend and holiday hours,” Snider said.
He said the offices will have 12 exam rooms with one of those rooms set up for cardiology services. He said cardiology patients will be able to take stress tests on a treadmill in that room.
“We also are looking at other surgical specialties rotating through the clinic,” he said. “We have talked about the possibility of OB-GYN physicians rotating through there.
“We are still making plans for other specialists through our recruiting process of being there.
“Some of (the service that will be offered) will be dictated by what our patients tell us they want.”
Snider said St. Luke’s is eager to open another facility in Arnold to serve patients who live closer to the city and to provide employees a place to work closer to home.
“Our effort is to try to be within 15 minutes of any of our patients,” said Snider said.
He also said St. Luke’s has physician offices in Imperial and Fenton.