By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News

As part of the Trails at 620 Phase Two development, a new 44,000-square-foot medical building will be opening that will be known as the Wilson Parke Medical Building and will be home to new Austin Regional Clinic and Austin Radiological Association facilities.

Both ARA and ARC are being build at 11714 Wilson Parke Ave.

“It’s such a huge growing area of Austin,” said Austin Regional Clinic manager Ali Burton. “We can hopefully make a great impact for the residents there. It will be nice and convenient for people who live out there.”

 

Austin Radiological Association

ARA Wilson Parke plans to open July 7, according to CEO Doyle Rabe. ARA has been delivering all forms of radiological imaging in Austin since 1954. Services include modern diagnostic and screening radiology including X-Ray, MRI, interventional radiology and CT colongraphy, which is sometimes recommended by physicians as an alternative to conventional colonoscopy.

“We’re a local group that has worked hard to provide access to the best quality radiology in Austin,” Rabe said. “Our physicians are all board certified. We’re constantly improving our technology and our commitment to quality service for the people of Austin.”

The new clinic will feature some newer machines such as a new low-dose CT.

“It is about a 60 percent reduction in radiation dose over old CT machines,” Rabe said. “That’s a significant improvement in patient care.”

The facility will also feature a 3T MRI, which is a higher power magnet than they have had before.

“It’s one of the state-of-the-art MRI machines,” Rabe said. “The benefit of that is it offers shorter scan time and more detailed diagnostic imaging.”

The new facility will be the 16th location for ARA. Rabe said because their clinic on Anderson Mill is closing, they wanted to open a larger facility that would serve the northwest Austin area.

“We saw a need in that area,” he said. “We’re offering more services at Wilson Parke which we couldn’t offer at Anderson Mill. We wanted to increase our services to that group of folks.”

The new clinic will be 8,020 square feet. It will be led by Robert Milman, M.D., who will serve as director and physician in charge. Milman was previously the director of the Rock Creek Plaza location in Round Rock. Milman is a radiologist with a specialty in body/cross sectional imaging. Britney Contreras will serve as clinic manager.

ARA Wilson Parke will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.ausrad.com or call (512) 453-6100.

Austin Regional Clinic

Conveniently located in the same building will be the new Austin Regional Clinic, which is expected to open in August. Upon opening, the clinic will have 10 full-time doctors on staff, with the capacity to expand for up to 20 doctors, Burton said.

ARC Wilson Parke’s specialties will include family medicine, pediatrics, dermatology, allergy and asthma, as well as an urgent care clinic from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Beginning in the fall, the clinic will begin its after-hours clinic on evenings and weekends. It will also have a suite available for rotating specialists such as surgeons and orthopedists. The clinic uses its own lab on site.

The new ARC clinic will be a 24,000-square-foot facility. There are two other ARC clinics opening this year in Austin, but the Wilson Parke clinic will be the largest of the three. She said by the end of the year, ARC will have 21 clinics in Austin.

One feature of all ARC clinics is their electronic records system, which allows for better continuity of care in the event a patient needs to see a different doctor.

“Say it is 7 p.m. and you sprain your wrist, you might not see your doctor, but you’re going to be seen on the same electronic system and your doctor is alerted,” Burton said. “So the next morning, your doctor knows you came in last night and he has all your history in there. It’s better for patient care, having the continuity, whether it’s a specialty doctor or a pediatrician.”

Burton said it will be very convenient to have ARA next door.

“It will be a huge plus because anything can be done next door if it’s available,” she said. “As a patient myself, I had to have a CT done and had to drive across town for it and it was inconvenient.”

Burton said she recently attended a running event in Steiner Ranch and had the opportunity to visit with residents who currently drive to the Anderson Mill or Cedar Park ARC clinics. She said they were excited about being able to see their family doctor closer to home.

For more information as well as a list of all doctors, visit www.austinregionalclinic.com. Established patients can also make appointments online using the “My Chart” patient portal which allows them to access their medical history online. For more information, call (512) ARC-INFO.