Downtown Family Medicine Clinic
Downtown Family Medicine (DFM) has earned its reputation as Seattle’s safety net clinic. Many of the city’s immigrant and homeless communities recognize DFM as their medical home. Supported by an innovative partnership between Swedish and King County Public Health, the residents at DFM accompany the city’s most vulnerable people through the challenges of a rapidly changing city. DFM is on the second floor of a King County building, conveniently located with other community resources including a dental clinic, needle exchange, low barrier buprenorphine program, refugee screening, WIC, and public health nursing for pregnant women and homeless families. What better place to learn family medicine for the underserved than among a family of community-based organizations!
Residency Site Director: Maureen Brown maureen.brown@swedish.org
Location: Located in Belltown (1 mile from Swedish First Hill) within King County Public Health’s Downtown Public Health Center
Population: DFM serves a diverse population of urban, underserved patients of all ages. We care for a large immigrant and refugee population (mostly from Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe) as well as homeless, unemployed, working poor, and geriatric patients.
Staff: Three residents per year. Medical team: 3 teams made up of Resident, Faculty Member, dedicated RNs and MAs. Other providers at DFM: Single full-time MD, Psychiatric NP, behavioral medicine counselor/social worker, registered dietitian, travel clinic
Payment Model: DFM serves patients regardless of their ability to pay. For uninsured patients, payment operates on a sliding scale. DFM also sees patients with Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) and Medicare.
Specialty Clinics: Psychiatry, Procedure, Colposcopy (each ½ day per week). Procedures include arthrocentesis, joint and soft tissue injections, colposcopy, variety of gynecologic procedures (IUD, nexplanon, stringless IUD removal), dermatologic procedures (excision, biopsy, I&D), nail removal, cryotherapy.
Features: In house lab and pharmacy, EKG, spirometry, NST, Ultrasound
Other Clinic Highlights
Joint partnership between Swedish First Hill Family Medicine and King County Public Health
Certified Federally Qualified Health Center
Colposcopy and OB referral center for King County Public Health
Suboxone Program
On-site interpreters in Spanish, Amharic, Somali, Arabic and Russian. Phone interpreters for any other languages
Downtown Public Health Center’s other resources that help provide collaborative, patient-centered care.
Dental clinic serving homeless patients
OB services- Public Health RNs through Nurse Family Partnership, Moms Plus and WIC
Pharmacy
Robert Clewis Center- Needle exchange and education center
Refugee Intake Clinic
Veteran’s Affairs Office
“Last Friday I started my clinic day while enroute to work on bike. I passed by the street corner where one of my long-time patients spends her time every Friday. I stopped to say hello and reminded her to come by clinic when she could take a break. She, in turn, reminded me, ‘Doc Hutchinson, be careful around these wild drivers!’ This routine has become one of my favorite moments of the week, as it symbolizes the extension of our work into the community. When I arrived at work, I was greeted by one of our wonderful MAs who was ready to talk through our morning plan for patients. Before I got started seeing patients, our behavioral health specialist walked to my desk to give me an in-person update about the status of one of my morning patient’s depression. The morning then consisted of two appointments for suboxone (some of my favorite visits), a prenatal visit for my continuity OB patient, a newborn visit with a baby I had delivered two weeks earlier, two visits with long-time patients one regarding diabetes and the other depression, and finally an appointment to discuss starting testosterone for a patient pursuing gender transition. Two of these visits I conducted in Spanish, and two were interpreted by phone. Throughout the course of the morning, I heard our patient and dedicated nurses making calls to patients, commending them for their attempts to live healthier lives and show up to appointments despite lack of transportation, the chaotic world of homeless shelters, and poor access to healthy food. This morning was a fairly typical one, representing the wonderful variety of lives that intersect in the safe and welcoming space that is DFM.”
“On a recent afternoon at DFM, I had two translated visits and one walk in visit. The first patient was an East African woman who was tearful about living with her young son in a homeless shelter, and she needed recommendations for eye care related to exposures in a refugee camp. The second patient was an East Asian man who had acute mental health concerns, a stigmatizing skin condition threatening his employment, and a poorly managed endocrine disorder. The third patient was brought up from the innovative buprenorphine clinic downstairs due to concern for complications from IVDU. What we prepared for is not what the patients brought us, and I love that I was in a clinic that helped me meet them where they were.”