GREENFIELD — After a year of quick growth in the rental space on Federal Street, Bridge Primary — previously known as Greenfield Primary Care — has moved to One Arch Place, expanding its footprint and ability to offer primary care services.

“The toughest thing about how quickly it has grown last year is keeping up with it,” said Dr. Dean Singer, one of three partners at the practice, now located on the second floor at 1 Arch St. “We want to grow in a sustainable way.”

When Singer opened the practice about a year ago on Federal Street, there were three employees. The practice is now staffed by 18 employees.

“We have more full-spectrum primary care options,” Singer said. “We have full-time nurses who can triage medical issues and see patients in office. We have more providers, so we’re able to offer same-day walk-in service and we can always have the ability to get someone in the same day or the same week.”

Additionally, two of the partners — nurse practitioners Laura Clubb and Deanna Welch — are co-partners in business at Alive Hydration, which offers IV drips designed to target a wide range of issues, including pre-menstrual symptoms and headaches, as well as exercise recovery and general health and wellness. As a separate business, the infusions are not covered by insurance.

“It’s a nice add-on for people who are looking for alternative treatments to feel good,” Welch said.

Singer, who noted Welch and Clubb have virtually been with him since the beginning, said each of the partners joined the practice with a similar mindset for the kind of workplace they wanted to be part of.

“The practice they came from was really the only … locally, independently owned primary care practice in the area,” Singer said, referring to Connecticut River Internists, which was acquired by Baystate Franklin Medical Center in January 2020. “We’re trying to bring back that model. Around the country, large, corporate-owned medical practices have sort of taken over. We really believe in this model of locally owned primary care practices.”

Clubb emphasized the aspect of the model that focuses on being “patient-minded” and getting to know the people with whom they’re interacting.

“We’re trying to get some of that back into what we’re doing,” she said.

Singer said that shared mindset was what made the three of them a good match, and what prompted him to reach out with an offer to bring them into the business.

“They’re really well-regarded as primary care providers in this community,” Singer said of Clubb and Welch. “They had an entrepreneurial sprit, as did I, so when I saw they started their medical business and ... we were doing stuff that was super complimentary … we all decided pretty quickly, ‘Let’s do this.’”

Singer said Bridge Primary has formalized a partnership with Clinical & Support Options, located in the same building.

“I had started seeing patients in CSO’s space downstairs on the first floor about six months ago, because they were looking for an easier way to get referrals into primary care,” Singer explained. “I was coming one day a week to see patients in their offices. I really came to like the organization as a whole.”

A similar partnership has also formed with Tapestry Health, and Baystate Franklin’s Opioid Bridge Clinic — the grant for which funded the renovation of the new office space — also remains in partnership with the practice, offering walk-in or urgent care, as well as regular primary care services, to individuals with substance use disorders.

“It’s very hard for people with substance use issues to find a primary care that stays around for a while and offers all the services they need,” Welch said.

Looking forward, the partners expressed a desire to eventually grow to include eight providers.

“I think that’s what it’s going to take to service the community,” Welch said. “There is a huge number of people without primary care or who are unhappy with their primary care.”

Welch and Clubb are accepting new patients 16 years of age and older, and Singer is accepting pediatric patients. Call or text 413-225-2792.

]]>