Solvera Health Galesburg clinic to start seeing patients next week. Here's what you can expect

GALESBURG — Doctors at Galesburg's newest health clinic could begin seeing patients as early as next week.

Peoria-based Solvera Health will soon open its temporary Galesburg clinic at 256 S. Soangetaha Road, a 13,431 square foot office facility located just northeast of Best Western Prairie Inn.

Solvera Health eyes Galesburg: A Peoria-based medical facility has plans to bring a primary care clinic to Galesburg

Construction crews were busy Thursday transitioning the building — which has been home to various business offices over the years — to a clinic. Patients will enter through the east entrance and to the left will be a temporary facility that includes a reception area and exam rooms. Work will continue on the rest of the facility.

Solvera owner and CEO Phil Caplis, who sat down with The Register-Mail for an interview on Thursday, said he expects doctors to begin seeing patients "next week."

"So far, Galesburg has been very engaging and supportive," Caplis said. "The city has been wonderful helping us get going as fast as possible. We called the city and told them we want to fast track this as fast as we can, and everybody from the fire chief to inspectors were out, telling us exactly what had to happen."

Solvera Health's Galesburg Clinic facility will open with 11 employees, including three physicians: family medicine specialist Dr. Julio Santiago, urologist Dr. Thomas Patterson, and gynecology and women's care specialist Dr. Samuel Fox. Santiago was seeing patients at Knox Clinic on the Cottage Hospital Clinic campus until last month. On Jan. 6, Patterson was one of five doctors who were informed that their contracts were terminated by Knox Clinic as Cottage Hospital began to fail. Fox previously saw patients at OSF St. Mary Medical Center and Galesburg Clinic.

Previously: Women's health focus of new Solvera Health clinic in Galesburg. Here are the doctors

The temporary Galesburg clinic would also be supported by nurse practitioners from Peoria's Solvera Health facility.

Services available in Galesburg will include:

• Primary Care / Family Care / Senior Care

• Women's birth control

• Urology

• Lab Work

• Specialty referrals

• Physical therapy

• Health and Medicare insurance consulting

Caplis said the plan is for the 256 S. Soangetaha Road building to a temporary facility, and Solvera Health would explore expanding into a permanent clinic. He confirmed Solvera Health has looked at several locations in Galesburg, including the recently closed Iron Eagle Harley-Davidson building at 131 S. Soangetaha Road.

"In a year to 18 months, we hope to be in a permanent facility," Caplis said. "A lot of that depends on how the receptive the community is to checking us out or establishing with us. I think once people see what we're all about, and once we get out in the community a little more, they'll be excited about Solvera Health."

Solvera Health opens in Peoria: A Peoria buffet restaurant will soon become a building to offer multiple medical services

Solvera Health accepts most insurances and serves families, seniors, individuals, veterans and seniors.

"Medicare is a specialty of ours, but we focus on everyone," Caplis said.

Caplis opened the first Solvera Health facility in October 2021 at 3525 N. University St. in Peoria. Located in a former Golden Corral restaurant, the remodeled 12,000-square-foot building is home to doctors' offices and includes diagnostic-testing facilities and laboratories, physical-therapy equipment and a pharmacy. Solvera Health recently opened a second location in Carbondale.

Turmoil at Cottage Hospital, Knox Clinic expedited Solvera expansion to Galesburg

Galesburg had been on Solvera's radar as far as expansion plans, but Caplis said the move was expedited by the turmoil which saw the closure of Cottage Hospital and Knox Clinic.

"I had talked to the team at Soderstrom Dermatology and they told me Galesburg was a really good community," Caplis said. "We came over and looked, and we liked it. And we understood that Cottage was in trouble. We saw opportunity in Galesburg, but when Cottage closed down, that just expedited the opportunity.

"I think there needs to be healthcare options for the community. One provider is just not the best system. People need to have choice. Nothing against the big institutions, they're all tremendous. OSF is a tremendous institution and obviously they've shown that over and over again with all of their development. But there needs to be an option."

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Caplis stressed Solvera Health is a one-stop primary care clinic as opposed to a prompt or urgent care clinic.

"We're trying to keep people out of the hospital and out of the emergency room," Caplis said. "A lot of people use the emergency room for primary care, and that's not what it's intended for. That's why you see 5-hour wait times.

"I like to say ease and convenience is our play," he said. "You come here, and hopefully 85% of your needs are taken care of, unless you need a specialist. And a lot of the people we see will need specialists, so we have our relationships with OSF and we can admit to their hospitals, or to Unity Point."

From the restaurant business to healthcare

A native of Valparaiso, Ind., Caplis, 53, has made an unlikely leap into the healthcare business. He attended Bradley University in Peoria and then worked at Caterpillar before jumping into the restaurant business.

Caplis' business background is in food service. He's owned several restaurants over the past few decades in and around Peoria, including Geo's Pizza and Two25.

Indoor-dining restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic might have hampered his Golden Corral buffet operation the most. In August 2020, it closed for good.

When considering what to do with the shuttered Golden Corral building, Caplis recalled a conversation a few years earlier with a friend who had an idea for a comprehensive primary-care facility.

"COVID catapulted some heavy decision making for my family," Caplis said. "We've run family businesses our whole life, so when COVID hit, it was devastating to our family. I had to make the decision to close the Golden Corral. There was so much uncertainty with labor and restaurants that we decided maybe we need to look at something else.

"I told my family, we're not going to make it, we must reinvent ourselves."

Now, Solvera Health is a family affair for the Caplis family, with Phil as CEO, his wife serving as chief financial officer, and his two sons in management roles with the company.

"Long story short, you hire a lot of smart people around you with healthcare experience. Business is business, so we understand the business side of it," Caplis said. "We built it, and everybody loves the model, but we started at patient zero. We didn't have one patient, and we have 800 now. And we're getting new patients every week."

Caplis said the Solvera Health name is a take on the word solvere, which means "solution" in Latin.

"And a solution is exactly what we are — we provide solutions to our patients," he said.

Patients can contact Solvera Health's Galesburg Clinic at (309) 233-2836 or by visiting its website solverahealth.com/galesburg.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: New primary care clinic Solvera Health opening in Galesburg, IL.