GREENFIELD — Four years after it opened its first location, Bridge Primary has moved to a new primary care clinic at 55 Federal St.

The move from its former 3,000-square-foot location at 1 Arch St., now occupied by Clinical & Support Options, to its new roughly 6,600-square-foot facility is allowing the clinic to expand its range of services, creating the city’s only dermatology practice, according to Dr. Dean Singer. He added that the clinic plans to offer physical therapy in the spring.

On the clinic’s first day open in the new space on Monday, Singer joined Nurse Practitioners Deanna Welch and Laura Clubb to discuss the new location’s impact on patient care in the county.

“There is a massive shortage of medical providers in general, and especially in primary care,” Singer said. “Nobody is starting private community practices these days anymore, so it’s pretty unique, what we are doing here.”

After Welch explained that the practice is accepting new patients and currently serves approximately 1,200 to 1,500 patients per provider, Singer said the clinic plans to hire an additional one or two providers each year working toward its goal of serving 10,000 patients or more.

In its 2023 “State of the Primary Care Workforce” report, the Health Resources and Services Administration projected a shortage of 68,020 physicians nationwide by 2036. HRSA reported that the shortage is more severe in rural and suburban areas.

Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment reports that in a regional survey of local public health officials, 72% of Franklin County respondents cited the limited availability of health care providers as the most pressing health issue facing their community.

Singer said that with the extra room available at the Federal Street location, he hopes the practice can achieve its goal to continue providing personalized care to patients at a volume comparable to larger corporate facilities. Welch noted that maintaining a more familiar relationship with patients simplifies work on the provider’s end and also breaks through a “web of bureaucracy” associated with corporate medical facilities.

“Everybody knows there’s lots of problems with our health care system these days and I think our hope is that this can help to be a model of positive and personalized health care — there’s been a trend in the last 20 years or so of hospitals and big corporations eating up all the medical practices,” Singer said. “I think we all can see a future, because the barrier of technology is just lower, where there’s more private practices, which would make the system more healthy.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.