Toulouse. Here’s how one of the largest clinics in the Pink City was transformed
Through Anthony Assemat
Published on
The Saint-Exupéry clinic has experienced a real transformation. Opened in 1975, specializing in nephrology (kidney function and prevention of kidney disease) and located in a rapidly developing district, Montaudran, east of Toulouse, it was historically attached to the Saint-Jean du Languedoc clinic, before the latter is closing its doors to move a little further east of the city, with the opening of the Capio clinic, in Quint-Fonsegrives (Haute-Garonne).
An “ambitious medical project”
In 2015, the decision to continue its development with an “ambitious medical project” and to consider its surface. In May 2018, Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse, laid the first stone of the site. “The work was completed in early April 2020 and we never closed during the construction period. But the new clinic project has started in a unique context, with the Covid“, Explains Vincent Lacombe, president of the Saint-Exupéry clinic.
Today, after 50 million euros of works, the establishment – which achieved a turnover of 27 million euros in 2020 and targets 30 million euros in 2021 – has a surface area of more than 20,000 m2 (against 6,500 m2 before the transformation), including 8,000 for the underground car park alone, on several levels and with 250 spaces.
Paid parking, like other clinics
A parking lot that the clinic has decided to charge to “avoid the phenomenon of suction cups, which residents and patients who had to come to consult in the past suffered,” explains Vincent Lacombe. And not for a purely economic reason. “The parking lot managed 1500 euros of turnover per month”, he continues.
The first 30 minutes are free and users start paying after one hour (1.50 euros) with, following, a quarter-hourly billing (2.50 euros for 2 hours and 4.50 euros for 4 hours). Only dialysis patients are exempt from payment.
MRI, day hospitalization, consultation platforms …
The clinic presents a complete radiology center (MRI, scanner, ultrasound, medical analysis laboratory, etc.), nephrology activities, a day hospitalization unit and consultation platforms with some 25 specialties (gynecology, ophthalmology, etc.) for daily procedures and for nearby population. “Our workforce is 265 people in the new clinic, against 150 in the old configuration. More than sixty liberal doctors who come to work on the spot, specifies Claire Grenouillet, the director of the clinic of the right bank.
The place also hosts a new rehabilitation medical care unit for renal pathologies (hospitalization, transplant), but also all types of hospitalization for the elderly. This is a first in Occitania concerning nephrological activity.
Physiologists and occupational therapists will be set up in this dedicated unit with spaces designed so that the patient gradually gets accustomed to daily actions. 45 beds have been created, including 30 for dialysis and transplant patients, and a therapeutic garden has emerged on a terrace.
With a Center of Expertise on Wounds
Cutting-edge services have also made their mark in Montaudran such as the Center of Expertise for Wounds and Healing, which supports difficult or chronic games.
And the Covid?
The “large format” clinic, as the management describes it, moved into its new premises at the very start of the health crisis, at the beginning of April 2020. “We organized ourselves, we welcomed patients and knew how to create the capacities”, indicates Vincent Lacombe.
72 patients were treated in 2020, compared to 135 in 2021 (figures as of September 30).
The Saint-Exupéry clinic is the first private establishment in Haute-Garonne to have set up a diagnostic assessment of the long Covid. And this, over a day in day hospitalization.
Nephrology and community medicine
Nephrology, internal medicine and community medicine are the three areas in which Saint-Exupéry intends to stand out. “We ensure the continuity of the management of chronic diseases by designing a comprehensive care path for patients,” said Vincent Lacombe. The stakes are not low because sedentary lifestyle, hypertension or diabetes are risk factors. “Kidney disease is on the increase, each year in France, by 2.3%”, pursuit of the president of the clinic.
A healthcare center, modeled on emergencies, at the end of 2022
The right bank “liner” has not finished with development projects. “At the end of 2022, an unscheduled care center will welcome, without an appointment, over a large period of time during the day, patients who need a quick consultation,” concludes Vincent Lacombe.
Here is where the hemodialysis centers are located in Haute-Garonne
Saint-Exupéry is the Toulouse clinic, but also ten other hemodialysis centers are present throughout the Haute-Garonne region. These centers offer consultations specializing in kidney disease and the assistance of medical professionals, on site, but also telemedicine.
In addition to Toulouse (Saint-Exupéry clinic, Pasteur clinic, Basso Cambo), the other dialysis centers are located in Bessières (to the north), Brax (to the west), L’Union (north-east), in Quint-Fonsegrives and Revel (in the east), in Villefranche-de-Lauragais (in the south-east), in Saint-Gaudens and Luchon (in the south). In Luchon, the dialysis center must integrate the Maison de santé which will be set up there.
In the department, 70,000 hemodialysis sessions are performed each year.
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