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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > WINDSOR GETS EXPANDED HEALTH CLINIC SERVICE
Article published - September 15, 2009
Credit: PRESS DEMOCRAT
Windsor gets expanded health clinic service
by Clark Mason
After years of trying to establish an affordable family clinic, Windsor has an expanded health center ready to make its debut with a grand opening party on Sunday.
Started last year as part-time satellite clinic run by Alliance Medical Center of Healdsburg, the Windsor facility has grown to a 40-hour per week operation that treats about 200 patients weekly.
“We are the safety net. We do welcome everyone. And we give them quality care,” said Jack Neureuter, Alliance’s chief executive.
Sonoma County’s seven community health centers, including Alliance, are taking on greater numbers of patients who can’t afford care, or have lost their jobs and insurance.
Health care officials say they play a vital role treating low-income and uninsured patients and also take pressure off emergency rooms.
Located in the Windsor Palms shopping center, the Alliance clinic occupies a former bridal shop and chiropractor’s office. It has a staff of two full-time, family practice doctors, a half-time pediatrician and three medical assistants.
“I’m happy here. I like it. They know my babies,” said Adela Loyola, a Windsor mother of four girls who on Tuesday brought in her youngest child, four-month old Camila, for a check-up.
Loyola used to go to Alliance Medical Center in Healdsburg, or Southwest Community Health Center in Santa Rosa, but finds it much easier to stay in Windsor, where the clinic is less crowded.
Plus she wants to stick with Roberto “Dr. Bob” Azcarraga, who treated her two older children in Healdsburg, but is now assigned to Windsor.
Loyola’s family has some medical insurance through her husband’s job as a painter, and she could go somewhere other than the new clinic, but she said “I like it here.”
“It is convenient to come here to Windsor. They are very friendly. The midwives are all very kind, very supportive,” she said.
In another exam room, longtime Alliance patient Charlene Dorais of Healdsburg was being seen for pain from a bulging disc and other chronic conditions.
“I couldn’t ask for a better doctor. The people here don’t shrug you off,” she said. “They make you laugh, even when you’re in a lot of pain. It’s like a family to me.”
The expansion of the clinic reflects a goal of town council members and school officials who noted that Windsor has one of the youngest populations in the county and high concentration of families.
Of the 13,000 patients Alliance treats, mostly at its Healdsburg facility, about one quarter have a Windsor zip code.
About one-third of the patients have Medi-Cal, a state program for low-income patients. One-third have no insurance and the remaining third have some insurance or pay a sliding fee, according to Neureuter.
Community health centers such as Alliance have benefitted from federal stimulus funds and could be in line to get another $40 billion over the next 10 years under pending health care legislation in Congress.
But Neureuter is not optimistic those funds will come through. And what the federal government gives with one hand, the state can take away with the other.
Alliance got $600,000 in federal stimulus funds, some of which went to pay for computers, furnishings and medical record systems at the Windsor facility. But the state this year cut $500,000 that Alliance Medical Center had received previously in the form of grants, programs for farmworkers, podiatry and dental services.
Neureuter said large gaps in coverage exist for mental health and for patients who need a specialist. He said that’s because Medi-Cal reimbursement rates are too low for those doctors.
“If you have a heart problem, or need a urologist, it’s very difficult,” he said.
But in the meantime community health centers serve about 20 percent of the people in Sonoma County. And Neureuter said there is a lot of support in Washington for the model.
“Everyone knows CHCs provide the most cost-effective quality service you can have,” he said.
Sunday’s celebration will be from 1 to 4 p.m. at the clinic, 8465 Old Redwood Highway. It will feature music, food, children’s game and other activities.
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