Sports medicine clinic on its way

This April, injured area athletes could be on the mend at a full-service, state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic in downtown Portales owned by Dr. Joel Sievers.

As part of the Portales downtown revitalization plan, Sievers recently received $65,000 direct economic development grant funds from the city. Sievers told city officials the total investment in the facility will be approximately $430,000.

Work began at the site at 304 S. Main St. in early November, and it’s on target for an opening this April.

“Our goal is to offer quick, quality care and full service sports medicine with an emphasis on fitness,” Sievers said. “On the sports medicine side, we’re going to try and make it, as much as possible, a one-stop-shop.”

And Sievers also said he wants to hit the ground running, when his clinic opens its doors on April 1.

“We’re going to be able to set people up on some re-hab, right away, hopefully starting that same day (we open) so that we can safely get them back on the courts and fields as soon as possible,” Sievers said.

“It takes another store-front on Main Street and creates a much better appearance for that particular area,” Roosevelt County Community Development Corporation’s economic development director Greg Fisher said. “And it also draws attention to downtown from outside the community as his patients come in.”

Sievers’ building will feature the sports medicine clinic, a quick gym, allowing shorter, more intense work-outs with a rock climbing wall to be installed in the future, as well as it’s own orthotics lab to mold and create braces.

“We’ll be able to do orthotics right on-site, we won’t have to do a mold and send it off, we’ll do it right here.”

Fisher noted that Sievers’ clinic is expected to impact the local economy in a big way.

“He’ll be bringing in patients, not only from Portales, but also from surrounding communities into the downtown area,” Fisher said. “We estimated the economic impact of his investment into downtown at a million dollars per year. That includes spin-off jobs and shopping in the downtown area.”

His application for the economic development funds note the business will create five jobs immediately with that number doubling in three years.

Sievers’s clinic will also feature Roosevelt County’s first digital X-ray system.

“Digital is relatively new,” Sievers said. “(With digital) we can transfer the image straight over to computer and we can burn CDs if the patient needs it, and we can tweak the image so we can magnify it, we can fade it in or out.”

Sievers also said that if the X-Ray technician doesn’t get the image just right, they can manipulate the digital image so that the patient isn’t exposed to additional radiation.

The quick gym will give the busiest among us a chance to get an effective upper body and lower body workout in less than 10 minutes. In fact — according to Sievers, an upper body workout would take four minutes and a lower body workout would also last four minutes.

“It’s kind of a neat time to be going downtown, with all the momentum of what Main Street is doing,” Sievers said. “(The city) saw that my business kind of fit with their plan. We’ve bought an old building and we’re revitalizing it.”

The business and building plans are still in the final stages, but Sievers is shooting for an April 1 opening of the clinic, with an anticipated opening of the quick gym by the end of April.

With a 7,000 square foot building, Sievers said there’s plenty of room for growth in the future.

“I’m hoping to add a physicians assistant, at some time in the future a second physician and a physical therapist, but there is flexibility there.”

Sievers is the team doctor for Eastern New Mexico University athletics and works closely with Portales High School athletes.

“It’s a good solid investment in downtown and we’re happy to see it,” Fisher said.