Even in 1916 the Mayo Clinic was an impressive health care facility. That’s what Dr. Walter Baker, a South Bend surgeon, thought when he visited the nationally known Clinic. It was the first nonprofit group practice in the world, and doctors from a variety of medical specialties came together there to care for patients. They believed “the needs of the patient come first.” So did Dr. Baker. In fact, he was so inspired by what he saw that when he returned to South Bend, he gathered six other specialists, and they formed the South Bend Clinic. Since its inception, the Clinic has provided primary and specialized care to its patients. More important, it has remained committed to the high-quality, personalized care that Dr. Baker and his partners established so long ago. Today, more than 80 physicians in 10 different locations serve the Michiana community, providing a range and quality of health care that is second to none. The South Bend Clinic was organized in 1916 and was located in downtown South Bend on Lafayette Street. The Clinic built and relocated to 211 North Eddy Street in 1964. A total of four facility expansions have occurred since the original construction. Today the building is approximately 100,000 square feet. The South Bend Clinic is currently in the midst of a 100,000-square-foot expansion project. The three-story building addition will architecturally integrate with the existing building, resulting in a total space of 200,000 A $38 million expansion that began in 2007 and was completed in 2009 doubled the size of the downtown facility on Eddy Street, between LaSalle and Colfax, from 100,000 to more than 204,000 square feet. In addition to new construction, nearly 65,000 square feet of the existing facility was renovated. The South Bend Clinic’s expansion created new jobs for more than 110 staff of health care and support workers, including the addition of 10 new physicians on the main medical campus. The South Bend Clinic now employs a staff of 610 at its five campuses in South Bend, Granger, Portage, Ironwood and New Carlisle, and at its offices in Elkhart and Berrien Springs, Mich. These combined facilities serve nearly 300,000 patients a year. The South Bend Clinic expansion also prepares the organization for a future where multiple medical disciplines will be handled within the same facility. “The ability to immediately access all the different colleagues and specialties under one roof, to share expertise and speed up the flow of treatment and diagnosis across all disciplines, will deliver clinical value in terms of improved outcomes, and it should deliver economic value,” says Paul Meyer, South Bend Clinic’s executive director. “Medical knowledge is expanding faster than anybody can keep up with, and so the ability to be in an environment where you’re learning from each other is important.”