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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > HEALTH CENTER TO TREAT HIV PATIENTS
Article published - April 11, 2010
Credit: PETALUMA 360.COM
Local health center to treat HIV patients
Beginning next year, PHC will care for people formerly served by county
By DAN JOHNSON
The Petaluma Health Center will begin treating around 75 HIV patients per year and will be providing services to more people with sexually transmitted diseases and family planning needs next year, now that Sonoma County has decided to eliminate these services to address state funding cuts.
“Right now, we don’t have anyone on our staff who has the experience to treat, or the ability to coordinate care for, local HIV patients,” said Kathryn Powell, the PHC’s executive director. “So, primarily, the West County Health Centers (in Santa Rosa) and Southwest Community Health Centers (in several locations, including Sebastopol) will be taking care of them.
“But we will develop a plan, and start serving about 75 people by March of 2011, when our new building is scheduled to open.”
The health center has purchased a 53,000-square-foot building at 1179 N. McDowell Boulevard that will enable it to increase its yearly patient visits from the current 68,500 to 108,000 by 2013, and have enough growth room through 2020. Also, the health center will serve a much broader spectrum of patients.
The PHC already treats people with sexually transmitted diseases and family planning needs, but Powell expects that more of them will be coming there after the county no longer offers the services.
“No hard date has been set by the county. They won’t close facilities until there are enough services and people in the community to take care of these people,” she said.
Challenged with addressing some $27 million in state funding cuts during the past three years and an additional $10 million next year, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opted to eliminate all, rather than some, of the services at the HIV clinic on Humboldt Street and the public health clinics on Chanate Road and Riley Street. Closing the HIV clinic will save an estimated $837,000 per year, while shutting down the public health clinics on Chanate Road and Riley Street will trim around $283,000 each year.
The HIV clinic serves around 550 clients each year, and the two public health clinics handle about 550 people per year.
After community clinics throughout Sonoma County were contacted about the proposed changes, the Department of Health Services determined that they have the capacity to handle them, partly due to additional funding they are expected to receive as part of the federal health-care reform package.
Powell expects that the PHC won’t hire additional physicians to treat these new patients.
“We’ll probably train the providers who we have now,” she said. “We will need to develop comprehensive, and coordinate this care with different organizations.”
She says that the West County Health Centers already has a strong tracking program that serves HIV patients.
“A lot of administrative work goes into running such a program,” Powell said.
Meanwhile, the number of people seeking treatment continues to grow. In 2008, 13,335 different people were served by the health center, and in 2009, the number grew to 15,010, a jump of over 12 percent.
“We’re overflowing,” Powell said. “One thing we’ve done is to offer more providers on weeknights and on Saturdays.”
The PHC formerly had two health-care providers available during those times, and now has the capacity for six of them.
Also, the health center has been able to open up more appointment slots now that patients with a wide range of chronic health issues — from diabetes to pains — are participating in group, rather than individual, visits.
“We started group visits about two years ago, and we’ve been doing more and more of them. The outcomes have been fabulous, because patients learn from each other,” Powell said.
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