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The new location, with about double the space, will allow Mercy to serve about 25 percent more of the county’s uninsured than it can accommodate at its current county-funded space.

The clinic will close its Germantown office on May 31. The new Gaithersburg office, which will be leased by the county, will open on June 12, said the clinic’s executive director David Wallace, whose wife Colleen helped co-found the clinic.

But getting patients to the new exam rooms — nine, instead of the three — remains a concern.

Ride On bus routes serve the Upcounty Regional Services Center on Middlebrook Road and have provided easy transportation for patients.

But the new Gaithersburg location, at 7-1 Metropolitan Court, does not have such convenient bus service. The closest bus stop is three-tenths of a mile away, Wallace said.

‘‘It’s not bad if you’re feeling OK,” he said. ‘‘But, if you’re not feeling well, or if it’s a cold night, that’s a long walk.”

Dr. James Ronan, the clinic’s volunteer medical director who works from his ‘‘office” in the back hallway, agreed.

‘‘We’re nervous about people not being able to get here. ... We worry that people from Germantown won’t get down there,” he said, though he noted a recent internal survey showed that 75 percent of clinic users arrive via their own transportation.

The majority of clinic patients live in the Germantown area, one-third are from Gaithersburg and the remainder reside in other areas of the county, according to clinic information.

‘‘We’re still working on the bus situation right now,” said county spokeswoman Mary Anderson. She said while the area is served by existing bus service, the county is ‘‘trying to work on getting a specific stop” at the new clinic location.

Mercy, a part-time, non-profit operation staffed primarily by 150 volunteers. About 40 volunteer doctors see patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and specialty services, such as urology, orthopedics and endocrinology, are offered on Wednesdays. The clinic is currently seeking a volunteer neurologist, Ronan said.

Clinic operators began discussing the need for more space shortly after the clinic opened in 2000. They announced their planned move to Gaithersburg in March 2006.

‘‘It’s evident in the fact that for the last three years our patient count has been flat,” Wallace said. ‘‘We’re doing the maximum we can in the space that we have.”

In fiscal 2006, 1,224 patients visited Mercy, Wallace said. That number had not increased in three years because of lack of space, he said.

Mercy opened in October 2000, and saw about 2,000 patient visits in its first year, operators have said. In 2004, there were 4,500 patient visits, and that number grew to 5,093 visits in 2005. In total, the clinic has had more than 25,000 patient visits in its nearly seven year’s of operation. Most patients revisit the clinic several times over the course of a year, Wallace said.

About 67 percent of the clinic’s patients are Latino, 12 percent are African American or African immigrants, 10 percent are Asian and other populations are white, Wallace said.

‘‘Montgomery County has identified the fact that there are over 80,000 uninsured and people who qualify [for clinic services] in terms of income in Montgomery County,” Wallace said. ‘‘How can we serve that need? Our aim would be to increase our patient count.”

Mercy will also have the use of a Language Line, provided by the Primary Care Coalition — a non-profit that works to increase access to health care for low-income, uninsured residents. The Language Line allows doctors and patients to converse via a translator on the telephone, Wallace said.

‘‘We’re trying to see how we can reach out to new populations,” said clinic administrator Amra McClanen.

The Gaithersburg location will also be equipped with computers in each exam room, she said. A goal is to have electronic medical records for patients by 2010, she said.

Two other county health programs will occupy the space. Dental services will be provided by the county’s dental program, and behavioral health services will be provided as part of a pilot program to expand those services in the county, Anderson said. The services are currently offered through Pojecto Salud in Wheaton and at the Holy Cross Health Center at Montgomery College’s Health Science Center in Silver Spring, she said.

The Department of Health and Human Services will occupy Mercy’s current space, said Catherine Matthews, director of the Upcounty Regional Services Center.

In addition to Mercy, the second floor of the upcounty center is home to a number of different programs, including a children’s immunization clinic, a counseling service for at-risk children and families and mental health services.

More Information

Mercy Health Clinic is expected to open its new location at 7-1 Metropolitan Court, Gaithersburg on June 12. The new mailing address is P.O. Box 4115 Gaithersburg, MD 20885-4115.

The new telephone number as of June 1 will be 240-773-0300 and the new fax is 240-773-0301.