News Release

UPMC NORTHWEST TO REOPEN
CLARION FAMILY PRACTICE CENTER

Aug. 2, 2004 — UPMC Northwest will reopen its Clarion area family practice center on Monday, Aug. 9.

Clarion Family Practice-UPMC will provide a variety of primary and specialty health care services for patients of all ages.

Board certified family practitioner Randy Kreider, MD, will practice full-time at the facility at 342 S. Fifth Ave. Dr. Kreider has been a UPMC Northwest staff physician for 13 years, including the past four years at the hospital-affiliated Franklin Grove Medical Center-UPMC in Grove City. He is a former UPMC Northwest medical staff president and currently is medical director of UPMC Northwest’s satellite medical centers and chairman of the hospital’s Department of Medicine.

Dr. Kreider’s special interests are preventive health care, sports medicine, treatment of depression and anxiety, and treatment of chronic diseases including diabetes, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Licensed practical nurse Amy Beichner, X-ray technologist Luwana Beck and office assistant Sharon Hoffman also will staff the facility.

Clarion Family Practice-UPMC will offer routine office visits, well baby and child care, immunizations, periodic physical examinations, basic X-ray and laboratory services, screening mammography, treatment for acute and chronic illness, and treatment for minor emergencies, Dr. Kreider says.

In addition to the primary care services that Dr. Kreider and his fellow staff members will provide for Clarion County area residents, board certified orthopedic surgeon Donald Smith, MD, will see patients at the Clarion site. Dr. Smith has been a UPMC Northwest staff physician for 12 years.

Clarion Family Practice-UPMC will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays except Tuesday, when there will be extended hours from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Area residents can make appointments by calling 814-227-1221.

Clarion Family Practice-UPMC will mark its reopening with an open house from 4 to 7 pm Tuesday, Aug. 10. The event will include free screenings (blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, osteoporosis), computerized body composition tests, refreshments and door prizes. A three-hour fast is required for the blood glucose and cholesterol screenings. No appointments are necessary for the screenings.

The reopening of the Clarion site, the presence of another UPMC Northwest affiliated family practice center in Clarion County (Koenig Family Practice-UPMC in Knox) and the October opening of the new UPMC Northwest hospital in Cranberry Township, Venango County, “will give Clarion County area residents better access than ever to UPMC Northwest’s facilities and services,” Dr. Kreider says.

The Clarion and Knox sites are two of four UPMC Northwest-affiliated family practice centers. The others are Emlenton Area Family Practice-UPMC (Venango County) and Franklin Grove Family Practice-UPMC in Grove City (Mercer County).