The changing population of Buffalo's West Side and the Affordable Care Act are leading to a new medical office building on Seventh Street. Dr. Raul Vazquez speaks four languages. He said his patients speak 14 at his current practice on Niagara Street. "We have people from Congo, from Somali, Arab, Burmese, a lot of more languages than just Spanish," he said.
Now, he is planning a major new connecting building on Seventh.
The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance for the project Wednesday for Urban Family Practice. Architect John Haas said the 40,000-square-foot building will maximize the lot and needed a zoning variance for a peaked roof.
"That's partly to hide the air conditioning, but the whole building itself is to bring all of these various medical and health issues together in one site," he said. "That's part of the reason that we need the height, to enable us to fit there. It's in the city. We don't have a huge lot."
Dr. Vazquez said there will be new medical services. "Health care is evolving in a different space, so we're trying to kind of incorporate a lot of nutrition and wellness which I haven't been able to do at our present building," he said. "
"We're at capacity. We have about 17,000 patients that come into the building. So, we're trying to expand the primary care to meet need in that area and also integrate behavioral services. So, we have some psychiatrists that will be coming in," Vazquez said.
Dr. Vazquez said he is also trying to bring in some specialists to deal with health problems. He said this is all linked to the coverage of everyone, including immigrants, under the Affordable Care Act.
