Johnson Memorial Health is hoping to open a new primary care office in Bargersville.
The Franklin-based county hospital system is asking the town council to rezone 2.32 acres of a 5.952-acre parcel of land just east of the Bargersville Police Department at Whiteland and Morgantown roads. The land is currently zoned rural residential, and it would become C-2, local business, if approved.
JMH plans to build a nearly 9,830-square-foot medical office building to house up to four doctors, along with parking and a detention pond for the facility. The hospital doesn’t plan to develop the remainder of the parcel, but will instead donate or sell it to the town to use as officials see fit, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO.
The rezoning was introduced to the town council at their June 10 meeting and may be voted on at their meeting set for 1 p.m. June 24. The request was previously forwarded to the council with a favorable recommendation from the Bargersville Plan Commission on May 19.
The rezoning was initially held to negotiate commitments after neighbors expressed concerns at the April 21 plan commission meeting. Among those concerns were road safety, hours of operation, and making sure potential uses of the building fit the surrounding residential area.
A memorandum of understanding between the town and the developer accompanies the rezoning that outlines the specific commitments, including prohibiting 13 land uses that would normally be allowed or allowed by special exception in the zoning type, and limiting the hours of any restaurant that may open on the site in the future to an 11 p.m. closing time.
The building would be built under a leasing partnership with Alderson Commercial Group, which is run by town resident Tony Alderson. The hospital also worked with Alderson to build the medical office that is shared with Community Health on State Road 135, Dunkle said.
“Hospitals are facing financial strain, and rather than us putting all the capital up front to build a building ourselves, it makes a lot of sense to enter into a lease relationship with somebody who is experienced in constructing medical office buildings, like the Alderson Commercial Group,” Dunkle said. “So, we’ll become a lessee.”
The initial lease term would be 15 years, which prompted residents to ask questions about future uses during the plan commission meetings. However, Dunkle said the hospital does plan to be in Bargersville for the long term.
Though it isn’t far to go to JMH offices in Franklin and Greenwood, Bargersville is a growing community that needs health care. The town is building trails for the health of the community, and the hospital wants to expand care for the same reason, he said.
“When you have four physicians, you can see upwards of 100 patients a day,” Dunkle said. “And we do know, there is a physician shortage in this country. But statistics also show that if you have a primary care physician, you actually decrease the total cost of your health care.”
Adding this new office would accent other efforts the hospital has made to improve access to care in the last year, Dunkle said.
“Johnson Memorial Health has worked very diligently over the last year in improving access for patients to primary care services,” he said. “We worked very hard on letting people schedule same-day visits. We now have an online portal allowing patients to schedule an appointment with their physician. So we’re trying to be much more patient-friendly.”
The idea to bring the new office to Bargersville has been in the hospital’s plans for a while, Dunkle said. The town has grown by thousands of residents, and many businesses have moved in — but none so far have been family medicine practices.
Dunkle had conversations about the lack of family medicine in town with former town manager Dan Cartwright, and the hospital has brought forward a solution to begin filling the gap. The idea is to bring in two family medicine doctors at first to treat all ages, with two more doctors — potentially an internal medicine specialist and a pediatrician — to be added over time, he said.
The location is also prime to reach many residents, with the office to be built on well-traveled roads, near multiple neighborhoods, the police station and trails, he said.
“They’ve increased the number of their trails in Bargersville, and there are so many homes close by to that location. That provides the opportunity for mothers to push their babies in a stroller, or people to walk to the office,” Dunkle said. “They won’t even have to go out on busy roads to come to the office.”
If the council votes to approve the rezone, there would still be a few more steps in the process, including working with the town to finalize the site plan, Dunkle said. There’s no estimated construction or opening date to share right now because of that, he said.
The council asked a few questions at the meeting, including where the agreement to purchase or donate the remainder of the land surrounding the proposed medical office stands. Town attorney David Yount said he drew up an agreement that is under review by JMH’s legal counsel.
JMH likely won’t be the only provider for long once the new building opens.
Indiana University Health owns a roughly 150-acre group of parcels at Whiteland Road and State Road 135, and there are plans for a currently undisclosed health care provider to build a facility in the White River Crossing development at State Road 144 and Interstate 69. However, nothing is announced to be built at either location in the near future.
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