Clinic Tour

Patient waiting room

There are two patient entrances to the clinic. The Maryland Avenue entrance is wheelchair accessible, and brings clinic visitors to the waiting room via the hallway in the upper right of this photo. The photo is taken from just inside parking lot entrance.

Front nursing station 

Medical assistants use this space to perform many of their duties which may not immediately involve patients.

In addition to rooming patients and aiding physicians, clinic medical assistants call for hospital or specialist reports, prepare injections, perform chart audits, process patient prescription assistance paperwork, and schedule appointments with specialists. Many of these staff serve as interpreters for our Hmong-speaking patients.

Medical records  

In December 2006, the clinic started the transition to Allscripts electronic medical record system (EMR). Patient visit notes, prescription refills, and many patient letters are now done within the EMR. All components of this are expected to be implemented by February 2008.

The medical records department includes two full-time staff and one part-time employee. They scan paper records into the EMR, process requests for record copies, enter prescription refills into the EMR, and pull paper charts as needed for some patients during the transition phase.

Hallways

The clinic is a rectangular building. Three hallways run the length and two shorter perpendicular hallways intersect these.  

Two of the long hallways consist primarily of patient exam rooms.  The exam rooms are divided into groups called pods, and each pod has a different color scheme.  Medical assistants serve all the physicians in a pod rather than being assigned to work with individual physicians.  

The third long hallway provides office space for the faculty physicians, the clinic manager, and administrative support staff.

Exam rooms

The patient exam rooms have identical set-up and stocking to make it easier for physicians to find supplies in any room they may work in.

Laboratory

The lab is considered moderately complex. It is staffed by one laboratory technician and a medical assistant who draw clinic patients as well as patients of the various research studies conducted at the clinic.

For more on the lab, please see our in-house lab page.

X-ray

The usual x-rays needed in a family medicine setting can be done in the clinic.  

Several medical assisting staff members have received certification in x-ray to provide back-up to the x-ray technician on staff.

Ultrasound and colposcopy

OB ultrasounds are performed in clinic, which is convenient for our patients and provides a more complete educational experience for residents.

The family medicine clinics of University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP) share an ultrasound technician. She is at Phalen Village Clinic all day on Tuesdays. She spends half the day working with an assigned resident. For the remainder of the day she does ultrasounds alone or with residents who have an interest in additional work.

The room is also used for colposcopy one afternoon per week. Again, it is convenient to be able to do these in the clinic. To ensure sufficient resident experience we take referrals for colposcopy from many other clinics. We also have arrangements with area high schools and free clinics to provide these for a significantly reduced fee for minors and individuals without health insurance.

Back nursing station;

Medical assisting staff use this space to perform tasks such as calling for records, faxing documents, receiving faxed hospital reports for follow-up appointments, looking up physician schedules, and preparing injections.

Preceptor room

Preceptors are physicians who supervise residents. The precepting room is where a lot of resident and faculty discussion regarding patient care occurs.

Residents have their own desk space and a phone with voice mail.  Also available to residents is a computer with reference software and access to the internet via a high speed connection.