Rural Health Clinic to move to more roomy Los Banos site

Los Banos-area residents soon will have better access to health care options with the move of the Rural Health Clinic to a larger facility that will be able to treat more patients in less time.

Friday marks the final day that patients will be received at the current site on the Memorial Hospital campus. Starting Monday, the clinic will operate at 1253 West I St. in Los Banos.

The move will more than double the clinic’s capacity, growing from a 1,000-square-foot space to one that is 5,100 square feet, said Mark Munden, director of radiology and the Rural Health Clinic, a Sutter Health affiliate. The current clinic has four exam rooms; the new facility will have nine, plus a consultation room.

“The big reason is for accessibility. We’ll be able to see more same-day patents,” Munden said.

“Our goal is to double the amount of patients as well as meet the needs in the community.”

Limited access to care has meant that people often go to Memorial Hospital’s emergency room to seek quick attention for common ailments such as coughs, sore throats and minor aches, creating an unnecessary impact on the facility, said Kristie Marion, chief nurse executive for the Rural Health Clinic.

“We’re hoping to reduce ER patients by 5 percent in the first year,” she said. “It’s not beneficial for patients to go to an emergency room when it’s not an emergency.”

According to the 2016 Community Health Assessment by the Merced County Department of Health, Merced County ranked 43 out of the state’s 58 counties on primary care physician-to-patient ratio.

Some barriers to care are lack of physicians and long wait times for appointments, the assessment pointed out. About 43 percent of adults in the county have difficulties or delays acquiring health care, the assessment reported.

After the new clinic starts seeing patients, Marion said, the hope is that more beds will be freed up in the hospital emergency room.

“We want to have the right patients in the right place,” she said.

The expanded clinic soon will offer imaging services now provided at the hospital, with mammography and bone densitometry machines going to the new facility, Munden said. The new setting will benefit patients, he said, because it will remove them from the busy hospital to a “softer” and “nicer” environment.

“We don’t want patients to be at the hospital if they don’t have to be,” Munden said. “It will free up space in the hospital.”

The imaging machines will start operating in the clinic in January, he said.

The clinic also will provide ultrasounds and fetal monitoring, Marion said, making it easier and more affordable for patients. Now, soon-to-be mothers can have their ultrasound and monitor their growing baby in the same place with one appointment, rather than making two or three, she said.

The clinic also will expand its hours to include Saturdays. It will be open for same-day appointments and walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, except Sundays.

Medi-Cal and Healthy Families insurance are accepted, along with most other insurance plans. If a patient does not have insurance, Marion said, they can call 209-710-6333 to see if they qualify for Charity Care, a discount payment policy.

Other services that will available at the clinic will be cardiology; pain management; pediatrics; prenatal services; psychologists; surgery; urology; ear, nose and throat doctors and hospital physicians who come in for clinic patients.

“They’ll (patients) have easier access,” Marion said.

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Rural Health Clinic to move to more roomy Los Banos site."