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
As The County Closes Health Clinics, Long Beach Opens A New One The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children and Their Families (TCC) will open its Family Health Center at Hamilton Middle School in North Long Beach on Monday, September 23. The center will meet the increased demand for services in the wake of recent county health clinic closures. It is the Clinic’s first full-time satellite location at a school. NORTH 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 its first full-time school satellite center Monday, September 23 at Hamilton Middle School, 1060 E. 70th Street, Long Beach. A 10:00 a.m. opening ceremony will include light refreshments, a welcome by the Clinic staff and school officials, a ribbon-cutting and brief tour. The opening comes just as nine Los Angeles County health clinics closed last week, with more closures imminent. County closures include clinics in nearby Norwalk, Paramount and Bell Gardens where many North Long Beach residents traditionally receive healthcare. “We already have a waiting list of at least four to eight weeks for appointments at our other sites,” said Dr. Elisa Nicholas, Executive Director of the Long Beach-based Children’s Clinic. “With the county closures, we expect even more demand for services, so the Hamilton center fills a huge need.” This community is one of the poorest in the city. The 90805 area is home to over 77,000 people living removed from the rest of the city of 425,000 by crisscrossing railroad tracks, concrete culverts and wide streets used by commercial vehicles. Approximately 53% of the population is uninsured compared with the national average of 20%. Twenty-two percent of children live in poverty. Access to healthcare is a significant problem. The neighborhood consists of few medical offices and no free or community non-profit clinics. Often students 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. Currently in the 90805 zip code there are no Pediatricians, and only five Family Practitioners and two Internal Medicine/Nephrologists to serve a population of 77,000. In FY 2001, 18% of TCC patients were from 90805, most of whom had to take public transportation to get care. The Family Health Center, located in a bungalow on campus, is funded by a grant from the state’s Bureau of Primary Health Care, through the Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities Program. The Center will be staffed by a pediatrician, family practitioner and nurse practitioner. It will serve children and adults in the neighborhood, especially students of Hamilton Middle School, and nearby Starr-King, McKinley and Powell elementary schools. Patients qualifying for service include those who do not have a regular source of healthcare and lack health insurance. Services include general pediatric care for sick and well children, primary healthcare for adults and adolescents, specialty referrals, immunizations and TB testing, health education and promotion, medications, chronic disease management, such as for asthma and diabetes, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, California Kids Enrollment, and the Reach Out and Read Literacy Promotion Program. The Clinic will provide quality healthcare to limited-income families at low or no cost for patients who qualify. A sliding fee schedule will be applied to others based on their ability-to-pay. There may be an extra charge for laboratory, X-ray, medications and other tests. No one is denied care due to an inability to pay. Hours of service when school is in session are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. When school is out of session, the hours are noon to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please contact The Children’s Clinic Family Health Center at (562) 531-7284 to schedule an appointment or for additional information. |
| The Children’s
Clinic is a non-profit, free-standing community medical clinic; |