Sutter Plaza office reopens after fires

Sutter North Bay Health Plaza in Santa Rosa, closed during the October wildfires, is in the process of reopening and will resume the majority of services by Tuesday, Dec. 5.

By January 2018 all services will be restored, Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation (SPMF) announced Monday.

The Plaza, located at 3883 Airway Dr. was badly damaged by fire and smoke, and required extensive cleaning, re-stocking, testing, inspections and certification by the City of Santa Rosa before reopening.

The Plaza is home to 12 physician practices including family medicine, rheumatology, oncology, orthopedics, radiology and laboratory services. SPMF’s only urgent care clinic in Sonoma County opened there in 2015.

It is normally staffed with 43 doctors and 250 employees.

“The Plaza is where our community comes for care” said Toni Brayer, CEO of SPMF. “We serve every age group and provide everything from preventative care to chronic disease management and rehabilitation. Before the fire we saw an average of 735 patients a day at the Plaza so returning to full capacity is a critical step in helping our patients – who are our neighbors – get back to good health.”

Urgent Care, advanced imaging, rheumatology and Physical Therapy departments are already open, and lab services, endocrinology, dermatology, neurology and oncology will open Dec. 5.

Online scheduling will be reinstated in mid-December.

Podiatry, orthopedics and breast surgery will reopen in January 2018.

Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation North Division cares for 125,000 patients in Sonoma County, delivering outpatient services at 13 care centers in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Healdsburg and Sebastopol.

On the morning of Oct. 9, all 13 care centers were closed while accessibility, safety, fire and smoke damage were assessed and abated. All of the locations except the Plaza had opened two weeks later.

After the fires, the urgent care clinic – which was relocated from the Plaza to 131 Stony Circle, Santa Rosa provided weekend services starting Oct. 14.

“Nurses and doctors, many of them displaced themselves, quickly moved to different locations so they could continue to serve patients. Teams expanded crucial medical services including Oncology and high-risk Obstetrics at open locations and staff called hundreds of patients to reschedule appointments to the nearest open facility, helping many evacuees get care in the town they’d fled to. We were determined to minimize disruptions in medical treatment and to respond to new patient needs” said Erin Neal, VP of clinical operations.

In addition to relocating SPMF doctors and nurses, Sutter Health also activated video visits. Sutter’s Walk-In Care clinic at 411 North McDowell Blvd in Petaluma also accommodated an influx in patients.

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