Two occupational-medicine clinics in the Santa Fe area have closed, but Santa Fe Medical Group, a local urgent-care provider, has opened New Mexico Medworks, which offers occupational-medicine services in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Española.

Medworks has a clinic and offices at 3500 Rodeo Lane, Suite A2 in Santa Fe. It opened about a month ago.

Occupational medicine includes pre-employment physicals, eye and hearing tests, drug screens, workplace evaluations (erogonomics), worker injuries and workers compensation.

Santa Fe Medical Group also owns Urgent Care Santa Fe at 2801 Rodeo Road, Los Alamos Urgent Care at 1460 Trinity Drive and Valley Patient Care in Española at 528 N. Coronado Ave.

Those needing occupational medicine services after hours can visit the group's urgent-care clinics for treatment.

"Everybody is working together to meet the same goal," said Mike Perea, the manager of New Mexico Medworks.

Drs. Richard Lieberman and Philip Briggs are principals in Santa Fe Medical Group. Dr. Deborah Sanchez is a junior partner in Valley First Care/Medworks in Española.

The decision to start Medworks was motivated in part by the closure of two occupational medicine clinics — IRC (Industrial Rehabilitation Clinic) in Santa Fe and, more recently, Concentra's Española office.

IRC's Santa Fe office, which was owned by Dr. Anthony Reeve, "closed rather suddenly," Lieberman said. Reeve, who also has clinics in Albuquerque and Roswell, could not be reached for comment.

The Española Concentra clinic at 706 La Joya St. closed Oct. 12 because of a lack of help and a lack of business, an employee of the Santa Fe Concentra office said. The employee asked not to be identified.

An e-mailed statement from Addison, Texas-based Concentra said, "For business reasons, Concentra discontinued the operations of its Española location as of Oct. 12."

Concentra clinic has also had problems with its Santa Fe clinic. Several key employees resigned following a fatal automobile accident at the clinic in March 2006. Three people died and seven were injured when a woman drove a truck through the clinic and into the waiting room.

In addition to vehicular-homicide counts, the woman is charged with six counts of inflicting great bodily harm by vehicle. She faces up to 36 years in prison. A trial is pending.

Medworks hired several Concentra and IRC employees after they left those companies.

In addition to Perea, former manager of Concentra's clinic in Santa Fe, Socorro Fernandez and Rebecca Soliz joined Medworks. The company also has Augustina Abbot, who was at Concentra's office in Española, on staff.

Angie Cline, who worked at the IRC office in Santa Fe, also joined Medworks. And Roger Cisneros, a former IRC employee, "briefly consulted with us after IRC closed," Lieberman said.

Perea said he left Concentra in part because the company was slow to repair the clinic and install barriers to prevent similar accidents.

In an e-mailed statement responding to questions, Concentra said, "The Santa Fe Center continues to build its customer base by providing a range of occupational health services to local employers, including some who were previously served by the Española center."

The statement also said that Concentra, which has 320 medical centers in 40 states, "plans to offer some form of urgent-care service in all of its medical centers by the middle of 2008."

As for the fatal accident in March 2006, Concentra's statement said, "The car accident ... was tragic and was a temporary interruption in service, but the center worked diligently to return to normal operations. As a result of the accident, barriers were installed to prevent the unlikely occurrence of a vehicular accident."

With the Medworks office now fully staffed, Lieberman is confident the new business will get a positive reception from Santa Fe employers.

Among the local companies that will make use of Medworks services is Santa Maria El Mirador, a nonprofit that cares for developmentally disabled people.

"I'm very unhappy that Concentra closed in Española," said Anke Mihales, the organization's human-resources manager. "We need workers-compensation services there. We don't want to send our employees to Concentra in Santa Fe. With Medworks in Española, that will save me a lot of time."

Mihales also said she has worked with Concentra, both in Santa Fe and Española, "for years" and expects to continue using Concentra for her Santa Fe employees.

But she called Dr. Richard Lieberman of Medworks "a very highly respected doctor" whom she has used before at Urgent Care Santa Fe for after-hours injuries. She also likes the fact that Medworks is a local company.

Mihales added: "I would guess there's enough business in town for more than one company. ... For the time being, we will probably stick with Concentra in Santa Fe and use Medworks in Española."

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com