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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > DOORS OPEN AT ALLIANCE CLINIC
Article published - June 13, 2008
Credit: SONOMA WEST TIMES
Doors open at Alliance clinic
by JOE ROSENHEIM
With the opening of its Windsor campus June 2, Alliance Medical Center is upping convenience and reducing waiting times by diverting some patients from the flagship office in Healdsburg.
“We’re giving patients from Windsor and Santa Rosa the option to come here first,” said chief operating officer Priscilla Contreras. She said about 20 percent of Alliance’s patients reside in Windsor.
Since the clinic’s opening, she said, wait times for appointments have dropped from three-to-four weeks to about two weeks.
“If it’s urgent, we’ll see you the same day,” she said.
The Windsor clinic employs four doctors – two general practitioners, a pediatrician and a nurse midwife – all of whom also work in Healdsburg.
“The pediatrician’s been here the most,” Contreras said. “She’s done a lot of immunizations, and we’ve had a couple sick (children) who’ve come in here. It’s convenient when they can walk instead of having to ride the bus.”
The clinic’s pediatrician, Dr. Guadalupe Hedrick, said she not only treats children but helps manage the schedules of those who require extensive medical care.
“I keep track of all of it,” she said, holding up one particularly thick case folder. “I make sure they’re at the cardiologist on time or their orthopedist on time. It’s coordinating the care of the more complicated child.”
Alliance Medical is the only non-profit medical clinic in the area, and provides care to many residents who are either uninsured or inadequately covered. The center accepts every kind of health insurance except Kaiser, and Contreras said 15 percent of its patients are uninsured. She said about 80 percent of its patients are Spanish-speaking, and that all of Alliance’s doctors are bilingual.
Whereas the Healdsburg Alliance Medical Center is a more encompassing provider, Windsor’s branch is focusing exclusively on pediatrics and family care. The clinic is open 20 hours a week – afternoons Monday through Wednesday and all day Thursday – but has designs of becoming a full-fledged medical practice by 2010.
Contreras said the center is particularly interested in attracting teens for its family planning program, which provides contraceptives and annual exams for women. She said teens are often reluctant to seek family-planning care out of embarrassment.
The clinic is at 8465 Old Redwood Highway, at the Palms Shopping Center and inside the building for St. Joseph’s Health Systems, which is providing the space to Alliance for free. Alliance Medical Center officials plan to evaluate the new clinic’s progress in 2009 to determine whether to build a larger Windsor facility.
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