The Children’s Clinic
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The Children’s Clinic |
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"Serving Children and Their Families" |
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The Children’s Clinic
A New Health and Wellness Center Opens to Address County Healthcare Crisis
The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children and Their Families (TCC) will have a Grand Opening Celebration for its new satellite clinic at 1057 Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach on Saturday, December 7, 2003. The new satellite clinic, The Children’s Clinic on Pine Family Health and Wellness Center, will help meet the increased demand for health services in our community. DOWNTOWN LONG BEACH –The Children’s Clinic, in an effort to assist children and limited-income families who do not have regular healthcare or health insurance, will officially open a new satellite clinic on Saturday, December 7 at The Children’s Clinic on Pine Family Health and Wellness Center, 1057 Pine Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90813. A 10:00 a.m. opening ceremony will include light refreshments, a welcome by the Clinic and community officials, and a brief tour. The opening of this new clinic comes in the face of a national andlocal healthcare crisis with 41 million people uninsured in the United States, 2.7 million uninsured in Los Angeles, and in Long Beach alone, 80,000 uninsured adults and 27,000 uninsured children. " We already have a waiting list of at least six to eight weeks for appointments at our other sites," said Dr. Elisa Nicholas, Executive Director of The Children’s Clinic based in Long Beach. "With the rising number of uninsured and the county closures, we expect even more demand for services. Our goal with the new Pine Clinic is to increase access to medical and health promotion services for the residents of 90813 in their neighborhood, as well as open up appointments and decrease wait time for all our patients." TCC is bringing much needed services to the most impacted neighborhood in Long Beach. The community of 90813 is one of the oldest, most densely populated and most diverse communities in Long Beach, as well as the area where the greatest percentage (21%) of the Clinic’s patients live. Over 60,000 people are compressed in 17,700 housing units within a 4.09 square mile area. The reported unemployment rate is 13.7% compared to 7% in LA County and those who are employed primarily receive minimum wage incomes without healthcare benefits. Access to healthcare is a significant problem. Often patients fail to receive treatment because they lack transportation and/or there is no facility available for care. The lack of a medical home with quality care, lack of linkage to resources and referral services are also indicators that affect this community’s clinical outcomes. The Children’s Clinic credits the opening of their new satellite clinic to the guidance and collaboration of local, state and federal entities working together to address the Los Angeles Healthcare crisis. These include individuals, community-based organizations, corporations, foundations, and governmental agencies. The Children’s Clinic on Pine Family Health and Wellness Center opened its doors on November 18, 2002, to serve the uninsured and underinsured families in their neighborhood. "Already in our first week we have brought a much needed resource to our community", states family practitioner, Dr. Patty Bellas. "I saw a 7-month old girl this week who had not received any healthcare since her birth because the parents had difficulty accessing health insurance and didn’t know where to seek care. This child had not received any immunizations. Typically immunizations are given at 2, 4 and 6 months to protect against deadly and disabling diseases. We not only were able to provide immunizations for this child, but we were able to link the patient and her family to health insurance. We were able to provide a medical home." The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children and Their Families is a non-profit community clinic that was founded in 1939 to provide healthcare and health promotion to children and families who did not have access to healthcare. TCC provides a true medical home with continuity of care. Last year at its three sites, almost 36,000 patient visits were provided, as well as pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests, 24-hour access to physician advice and health education and wellness. Services at this new satellite clinic will include primary healthcare for children, adolescents, and adults, family planning, medications, chronic disease management for asthma and diabetes, specialty referrals, immunizations and TB testing, health education and promotion, the Reach Out and Read Literacy Promotion Program, enrollment in Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and California Kids. It will also house the Asthma Resource Center for the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma. The Clinic will provide quality healthcare to limited-income families at low or no cost for patients who qualify. No one is denied care due to the inability to pay. Hours of service are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please contact The Children’s Clinic on Pine Family Health and Wellness Center at (562) 366-5900 to schedule an appointment. |
| The Children’s
Clinic is a non-profit, free-standing community medical clinic; |