Tucked into a quiet corner off The Alameda in San Juan Bautista,
a small group of people have been working to improve the city’s
health care, one day at a time.
Tucked into a quiet corner off The Alameda in San Juan Bautista, a small group of people have been working to improve the city’s health care, one day at a time.
Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital opened the city’s first local health care clinic last June to a community that, until then, didn’t have any type of health care services.
After months spent struggling over licensing roadblocks and obstacles, the clinic is close to being able to provide the services and programs they’ve been dreaming about since its inception, said Marian Anderson, director of the emergency department and community health clinics at Hazel Hawkins.
“We’re feeling like we’re getting there,” Anderson said. “The most important thing is that we’ve got health care out there.”
Because it is a hospital-linked clinic, the community receives the benefits of everything the hospital has to offer, except in a local clinic right down the road from their homes.
Obtaining the necessary medical licensing has taken time because of the state’s strict guidelines, expressly certain services that treat children.
“The good news is that you know they’re regulating things,” she said. “The bad news is that it takes a long time to do it.”
The clinic will receive its Vaccines for Children (VFC) license in a few weeks, which will enable them to administer immunizations and vaccines for children in time for the new school year beginning in September, Anderson said.
A few months down the road they will finally be licensed to provide services under California’s Child Health & Disability Prevention (CHDP) program, under which Medi-Cal funds a full range of pediatric services, she said.
“It’s the ultimate for providing children with childhood immunizations, eye exams – all the things that we want our kids to have and may not get if the parents had to pay,” she said.
With a Hispanic population totaling about half of the city’s makeup, staffing the clinic with bilingual employees was a major priority.
“If it doesn’t go up in Spanish it doesn’t go up in English,” Anderson said. “It’s very comforting for people to be able to walk in and know that they can talk to somebody, that they don’t have to stumble.”
The clinic’s staff consists of a full-time physician’s assistant, receptionist, outreach coordinator, one part-time LVN and two part-time physicians.
Patients can receive services for a variety of ailments, from a twisted ankle to back pain, said outreach coordinator Anthony Mojica.
“Being urgent care, we’ll see everything that’s not (emergency room) related,” he said. “We can’t do a cast, but if it’s not a break, we can treat it.”
Beginning in April the clinic will begin a free adult educational program, which will inform residents on many aspects of adult and pediatric health care – such as nutrition, hypertension, prenatal care and diabetes, Mojica said.
To introduce the community to the clinic’s presence and services, Mojica has spent the past eight months going door to door, handing our flyers and getting to know the residents the clinic hopes to serve.
“People have been wanting us here, depending on who you talk to, for 10 or 20 years,” Mojica said. “They’re really glad we’re here and have shown us a lot of support. Even if it’s a splinter, they’ll go to the clinic.”
The clinic’s sustainability is currently assisted by two state grants, which act as a safety net to the burgeoning business, Anderson said.
Like any new venture, the first few years can be an uncertain time financially, but until it gets established the grants will give them some “room to breathe,” she said.
Although business has been slow, traffic is steadily increasing. The unpretentious atmosphere gives Physician Assistant Herman Nava a chance to give his patients something just as important as medicine – humanity.
A simple phone call to his patients to make sure they received a prescription or taking an extra three to four minutes in the examining room can make a difference, he said.
“Going to the doctor, you’re already afraid, and personally if (a doctor) treats you coldly and kind of aloof, I don’t like that,” Nava said. “That personal touch makes them feel comfortable… we want them coming back.”
Hazel Hawkins Community Healthcare Clinic is located at 310 The Alameda, San Juan Bautista. It is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
