MEDFORD, Ore.- La Clinica held a celebration for its new Acute Care Clinic which is set to open its doors next month.
Back in March, NBC5 News reported $2 million was awarded to La Clinica from the federal government for its Acute Care Center Expansion Project. Now, the new center is getting ready to open its doors after receiving close to $6 million in government, foundation and community support. La Clinica’s CEO Brenda Johnson says there’s a lot of people to thank.
About a third of the resources were supported by our federal partners, about a third by our state partners and about a third from the community, which is saying a lot about, like, how to knit together really important bodies of work like this. So, many donors, many of you here have really contributed in very meaningful ways to us.
La Clinica’s new Acute Care Clinic is located on Market Street in Medford and will open on June 10. The clinic has 12 exam rooms, isolation areas for infectious disease and solar panels for emergency preparedness. For the first time, La Clinica will be able to offer X-ray services through the clinic, which should be available by August.
Mercy Flights CEO Sheila Clough says there has never been a more important time than right now to provide additional access to affordable healthcare.
We’re all tapped. There is more need than any of us can provide access to. Our team sees the amazing work that’s being done in our emergency departments in our hospital systems but there’s a lot of patients that don’t need to be at the emergency department.
The project aims to impact nearly 8,000 low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents of Jackson County. Johnson says the new facility will reduce the need for emergency room visits and hospitalizations by providing timely and efficient treatment.
“We decided, you know, there was this unmet need that Sheila speaks to about providing really high quality care for people who are super-low income who didn’t have access,” Johnson said.
Once the clinic opens, the existing Acute Care Clinic will be remodeled into a drive-up pharmacy and on-site lab. State Representative Pam Marsh says La Clinica will continue to assure the people of Oregon are getting the right healthcare at the right time.
You know, at the state level, when we talk about healthcare, we talk a lot about how many Oregonians have some kind of healthcare coverage, and that number right now is 96%. What about the other 4%? How do we know that those 96% of people who have healthcare coverage are actually able to get the kind of healthcare that they need? These are the questions that La Clinica has been asking and answering for years.”
The new Acute Care Clinic will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays starting June 10.
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