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Health district stops urgent care services |
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Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator
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Saturday, 02 August 2008 |
Injured and sick West Side residents can’t count on being treated at the Del Puerto Health Center now that it’s dropped its urgent care services.
With health care demand outpacing the center’s resources, the Del Puerto Health Care District’s board of directors decided that having urgent care should take a back seat to being a primary care provider. That means existing patients can keep scheduling their routine appointments, but walk-ins will only be seen as time permits.
“At this point, we can’t take more patients,” said Dr. Eric Ramos, the health center’s director of medical services.
District chairman Ed Maring said they’ve been gradually implementing the policy for some time now. To notify the public, district employees have removed the term “urgent care” from advertisements and the clinic, 1108 Ward Ave.
“We are not urgent care; we’re a primary care facility,” said the center’s director, Maureen Brown.
There are a few exceptions, Brown said, for people injured while working for some local agricultural businesses and if patients have certain types of insurance.
Still, many locals consider the center Patterson’s urgent care option. Brown said new patients routinely come in with the expectation of receiving services, especially on weekends, when the clinic is the only open health care facility.
In some cases, if time allows, those patients are seen. But there are no guarantees, and they do need to pay for the visit.
People also assume that because the district collects a portion of property taxes, their services are open to the public. Maring, who’s been on the board for close to 30 years, said the district has always required either insurance or cash payments for services.
Maring said in the past, the clinic had fewer patients, which allowed more time for urgent care. As the patient base has grown, the district has been decreasing the number of urgent care patients it will see.
Patterson does still have one clinic that will accept walk-ins — Golden Valley Health Center, 200 C St. That clinic also allows payments based on a patient’s income. However, it is not open on weekends and has limited capabilities that will sometimes require a patient to go to an out-of-town facility.
The district opened its clinic about five years ago in downtown Patterson. A few years ago, it relocated to its current location. The district had once overseen the Patterson hospital that closed in 1998.
After the closure, the district remained intact and continued to collect taxes. Those fees also go to operate ambulance services and were used to pay off the debt left from the hospital. When the hospital debt had been paid off, the district opened the clinic and provided urgent care.
“As it grew busier and busier, (urgent care) became impossible,” Maring said.
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