Gilroy – A new clinic is rising alongside U.S. 101, and with it
the promise of expanded services for South County residents of
every stripe.
Gilroy – A new clinic is rising alongside U.S. 101, and with it the promise of expanded services for South County residents of every stripe.
Since its groundbreaking nearly a year ago, the Valley Health Clinic has stayed on time and within budget, said county supervisor Don Gage, a proponent of the nearly $60 million project. Due to open next fall, the clinic will offer pediatric and primary care including obstetrics, gynecology and opthamology, public health services such as immunization and nutrition programs, and even dental care, from a 60,000-square-foot facility at the Southpoint Business Park at Arroyo Circle.
The clinic will likely replace the county clinic in San Martin, said Gage, a far smaller facility currently at capacity. Patients have waited months for appointments at the Monterey Road clinic, which lacks an on-site pharmacy, and sometimes opt to drive to San Jose instead. The majority come from Gilroy.
Most of the clinic’s patients are Medi-Cal insured, said county health spokesperson Joy Alexiou, but the new center will also serve the uninsured and those with private insurance, who sometimes opt for specialty treatments at the San Martin clinic. County officials expect the clinic to treat more than 100,000 patients each year.
Yet the clinic won’t dramatically reduce patient loads at other South County clinics or nearby Saint Louise Regional Hospital, said Alexiou.
“The community is growing at such a rate,” she said, “that us moving to Gilroy just helps to meet the demand for services down there.”
A few miles away, at Saint Louise vice president Vivian Smith said she expects the hospital’s charity care cases to increase, not decrease, with the addition of the county clinic. To get there, she said, many patients will have to pass Saint Louise, “and at a time when they need acute care services, most will choose to go to the closest facility.”
The clinic’s amenities will include an on-site pharmacy and digital X-ray diagnostic equipment, which isn’t available at the county’s new Gardner South County Health Clinic in downtown Gilroy. The pharmacy will give patients a one-stop-shop for medications, instead of requiring two stops to fill a prescriptions.
“It’s moving right along,” said Gage, “and everything is going as planned.”
