La Clinica branch opens today, set to serve those with no ‘medical home’

By BILL KETTLER
Mail Tribune

The building might not look ready from the outside, but La Clinica del Valle will open its new dental clinic in west Medford today.

The dental clinic is a major component of Phoenix-based La Clinica’s expansion into Medford. When the last construction crews leave later this month, La Clinica will have enough space to provide dental and medical care for about 3,000 people in its new Family Health Care Center at 1307 W. Main St.

The satellite clinic will serve mostly people who have little or no health insurance, no primary-care physician and no "medical home" — a place they go for regular health care, said Brenda Johnson, La Clinica’s executive director.

"Of those 3,000, less than 40 percent are on the Oregon Health Plan," Johnson said. "The rest are uninsured."

The 6,200-square-foot building has been remodeled to include six dental chairs, nine medical-exam rooms, a mental-health room, offices for medical staff and medical-record storage space.

Workers spent New Year’s Eve putting the finishing touches on dental suites and medical examining rooms. Cabinet builders danced around the flooring crews, and furniture movers lugged in chairs for the waiting room as soon as the flooring crews laid down the carpets.

"We’ve been working 10-hour days to get this project done," said Bill Bittle, construction supervisor for Vitus Construction, the primary remodeling contractor. "They had a set amount of time and we had to meet that."

The federal grant that provides staff funding for the satellite clinic set a fast tempo for builders. Terms of the $540,000 grant required La Clinica to see patients within 90 days after funds were awarded. To meet that requirement, La Clinica had to rent mobile medical units and park them behind the building during the early phases of remodeling.

The grant was one of 28 awarded by the Bush administration across the United States to expand health-care services for low-income people. It’s part of a long-term initiative designed to double the number of uninsured or underinsured patients served by community-based health centers.

Medical staff have been moving into the new offices right behind the builders. Several new examining rooms are already being used while workers complete other parts of the building.

A formal open house is planned for Feb. 21.

La Clinica was organized in 1988 to provide medical care for Southern Oregon’s growing Hispanic population, which included many low-income families. By 2000, about one-third of its patients were non-Hispanics. Johnson said the clinic’s changing patient base reflects the growing number of individuals and families who no longer have health insurance.

She noted the rising cost of health care has forced some employers to cut back on health insurance as an employee benefit. Some people who formerly bought their own health insurance can no longer afford it.

"The more premiums rise, the more people we’re seeing," she said.

La Clinica serves about 4,500 patients at its main offices on South Pacific Highway, but there was no room to expand on that site. Johnson said it made sense to build a satellite clinic on West Main Street because many people in La Clinica’s target population live within walking distance of the new building.

Statistics from La Clinica’s grant proposal show the need for additional health care providers for west Medford’s 28,000 residents. Twenty-five percent have incomes that fall below the federal definition of poverty, about 45 percent have no health insurance, 35 percent are younger than age 18, and 23 percent are elderly.

Johnson said changes in the Oregon Health Plan that have been proposed to reduce Oregon’s budget deficit will create more demand for the new clinic’s services and put more pressure on other health care providers across Jackson County.

"The need is overwhelming," she said.

No single entity can solve the problem, she said. "If we all take a piece, we can make a dent in it."