Davenport, Iowa — On the heels of Palmer College of Chiropractic’s announcement that it will invest nearly $20 million in capital projects at its main campus in the Quad Cities, the school announced the opening of a new student clinic on Nov. 8.
The $3.4 million expansion of the existing student clinic will serve as a tremendous asset to students, clinicians and community patients.
“We’ve been quietly working on this project for the past year, creating a student clinic that leverages cutting-edge technology with the traditional strengths of our program,” said Dennis Marchiori, DC, PhD, chancellor and CEO of Palmer College of Chiropractic. “The Palmer Chiropractic Student Clinic is the first place our students begin to deliver care to student patients, and eventually, our broader Quad Cities community. All of our clinical experiences will now be centralized under one roof, offering a contemporary place for education, healing and care.”
The student clinic will now be located on the renovated third floor of the Palmer outpatient clinic, improving the student experience by offering 25 treatment rooms to be used for patient care. It’ll also be home to a renovated radiology suite, where students will gain experience in diagnostic imaging interpretation. One-hundred-inch monitors with interactive tablets will allow for an immersive experience with image review for students.
The new space is part of the largest clinic network for chiropractic care in the country, with more than 78,000 patient visits from Quad Citizens annually. The Palmer outpatient clinic has offered complimentary chiropractic services to veterans, active-duty personnel and their families for more than a decade, providing more than $7 million in pro-bono care.
“At Palmer, we dare to be at the forefront of spaces that chiropractic students will not find at comparable programs,” Marchiori added. “No peer facility like the Palmer Clinics exists in the United States in terms of space, diversity of faculty expertise, and the breadth of the patient and student experiences.”
Before the opening of the new space, the student clinic was located across the street from the Palmer Academic Health Center. Desperately in need of a redesign, the student clinic—where students work with fellow students—was last updated in the late 1990s. “It looked, and was dated,” Marchiori said.
The new space will benefit students like Alec Morgan, who will be among the first groups of students to experience the new clinic. “Palmer always, in a very Palmer fashion, has kept things the best of the best. Hands-on clinical experience is one of the most important parts of our education, and the new clinic will give us a more cohesive clinical-education experience.”
Palmer College of Chiropractic, the first and largest college in the chiropractic profession, has campuses in Davenport, Iowa; San Jose, Calif.; and Port Orange, Fla.
