By OSEYE T. BOYD
oboyd@muncie.gannett.com

(Published Monday, Nov. 23, 2009) MUNCIE — In a little strip mall on McGalliard Road, a few doors down from Domino’s Pizza, women can get prenatal care and free pregnancy tests, and patients who are diabetics can receive information and education.

Community Hospital Outpatient Services, a new clinic that specializes in prenatal and diabetes care, has opened in Muncie and is open four days a week. The clinic also is an enrollment site for Medicaid, is a doctor referral service and offers a prenatal substance abuse prevention program (PSUPP).

Community Hospital was scouting locations for the clinic along McGalliard earlier this year, The Star Press reported in February.

Diabetes among young adults and children is on the rise, as is drug use among pregnant woman, which makes services the clinic offers more vital than ever.

“We see a need,” said Marianne Spangler, clinical director for Diabetes Care Center. “There’s a lot of people in this county who are uninsured and underinsured … There’s just no way all the needs are going to be met by one agency.”

The clinic opened just as Open Door/BMH — newly renamed Open Door Health Services — plans to expand. Open Door Health Services also is hiring more doctors and already has more nurses compared to a year ago, CEO Toni Estep said.

“Our plan is with the new building that we can take care of everybody that needs care in the community,” Estep said. “If there’s a choice, I think that’s good a thing.”

Community Hospital’s move to Muncie makes sense because many of the clinic’s patients drove to Anderson from the East Central Indiana region. Being closer will cut down on drive time and money, social worker and PSUPP Director Priscilla Engle said.

It’s a perfect setup for new mom Misty Tooley. Tooley works in Muncie, but lives in Anderson. She no longer has to worry about doctor appointments being such a major disruption in her schedule.

“It’s really convenient because a lot of the times my appointments were when I was at work,” Tooley said.

Contact news reporter Oseye T. Boyd at 213-5830.