Less than a year after state officials announced that a methadone clinic was coming to Bloomington to help combat the state’s opioid epidemic, the center is open and treating people.
The 9,000-square-foot clinic on Liberty Drive, near the intersection with Bloomfield Road and adjacent to El Ranchero restaurant, was built to eventually serve up to 500 patients each day.
News of the clinic came as a surprise to Bloomington city officials, including the mayor, who read about it in a newspaper article last summer.
State officials have since said they should have included locals in the discussions and decision-making process.
Limestone Health opened quietly on Wednesday and provided a medical assessment and methadone, an opioid-based treatment option for people addicted to heroin and other opioid-based drugs, to 12 patients.
The clinic, and one like it in Lafayette that opened last week, are among five new methadone treatment centers the state mandated and located around Indiana.
Louisville-based Springstone Health submitted a proposal to set up and manage the clinics, and received state approval for sites in Lafayette and in Bloomington.
The state did not provide funding, nor did it enter into a contract with the for-profit providers selected, according to Zoe Frantz, Springstone’s vice president of business development.