Six community clinics in the region will be offering care to more people after receiving a new round of federal grants totaling more than $5.6 million.
The six clinics are located in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties. Collectively, the clinics treated more than 349,000 people in 2014.
They’re members of the nonprofit Health Center Partners, a consortium of 17 community clinics in Southern California.
Vernita Todd, Health Center Partner's senior vice president of external affairs, said the six grant winners will be getting makeovers.
“For example, our member, San Ysidro Health Center, plans to renovate their maternal and child health site, and add a new pediatrics suite," Todd said. "They believe that it’ll help them overall see about 7,000 new patients, because they’re adding 14 new exam rooms.”
But Todd pointed out all community clinics have needed to add capacity to handle the region’s new Medi-Cal members.
“There aren’t a lot of private physicians that accept Medi-Cal," she said. "So for these folks who finally have coverage, they find themselves with an insurance card — even if it is a Medi-Cal card — and they can’t find a doctor.”
