Five months after opening in April, the new Lone Star Circle of Care clinic inside Seton Northwest Hospital has already had more than 6,000 patient visits, a figure that excites Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, chief medical officer for clinical services at LSCC.

LSCC is anticipating a 25 percent growth in patient visits, from 350,000 visits in 2012 to a projected 440,000 visits in 2013, she said.

"There's more to come," Duperval-Brownlee said. "We're projected to have a lot of growth in 2014."

The clinic offers services in pediatrics, women's health, family medicine and behavioral health, which includes mental health services. The clinic has a psychiatrist on staff who can prescribe medication as well as therapists to provide added treatment.

Duperval-Brownlee said Seton officials indicated they are pleased with the partnership.

"There's such a dearth of access points for people needing primary care providers that are [accepting patients] and needing to get into a system of care," she said.

LSCC, located inside the Health Plaza attached to Seton Northwest, accepts private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare and also caters to patients who do not have insurance.

"We provide a full spectrum of services for people, so it's truly holistic," LSCC Communications Director Rebekah Haynes said.

LSCC, which operates 30 clinics in Central Texas, opened the second Travis County clinic because of demand, Duperval-Brownlee said. About 25 percent of LSCC's patient visits are from Travis County residents even though the only other clinic in the county is located on Ben White Boulevard. She said patients were traveling much farther distances for the care they wanted.

That's where the mutually beneficial partnership with Seton HealthCare came into play. Seton Northwest needed a facility in which patients who visit the emergency room could follow up with a primary care physician, and LSCC needed to find other access points for patients to find LSCC.

"I'm extremely proud of being here," Duperval-Brownlee said. "The clinic really is able to fulfill what we aim to be, and that is [to be] people-centric."

To spread the word about the clinic, LSCC has been meeting with community leaders, knocking on neighborhood doors and hosting a table with information at the food pantry at Gateway Church.