Value of local health centers

As a young man in the 1950s, my father left his Mexican village to become a bracero, or guest worker, in the agricultural fields of Sonoma County to pursue the American Dream.|

As a young man in the 1950s, my father left his Mexican village to become a bracero, or guest worker, in the agricultural fields of Sonoma County to pursue the American Dream. He worked during a time when uninsured, low-income individuals, and particularly ethnic minorities were often denied health care. Over the past 50 years, Community Health Centers have worked to expand access to health care for medically-underserved populations.

As I grew up, Community Health Centers provided opportunities and hope for my family. My childhood was filled with memories of the exam rooms and dental chairs of our community health center, La Clinica De La Raza. I proudly looked up to my older sister, who began as a receptionist at La Clinica and quickly rose up the ranks. She and her colleagues made sure that children received high-quality preventive oral health care and education on establishing and maintaining good health habits.

I remember watching tooth-brushing videos, chewing red plaque tablets in front of mirrors, tolerating annual fluoride treatments, and demonstrating my flossing expertise to the dental staff. La Clinica served as my medical and dental home until I left for college. After graduation, I returned to La Clinica as a board member, to help ensure that a new generation could access high quality health care. This experience solidified my commitment to improving health access for underserved communities, and after graduate school, I came to Sonoma County, where my father had started his American Dream.

I joined Petaluma Health Center last year because it gave me an opportunity to join a team that is committed to expanding access to health care for all. It’s gratifying to see that our everyday work expands access to quality primary and preventive care for thousands of community members. PHC’s team wakes up every morning with a strong sense of purpose: to ensure that everyone who walks through our doors has access to prevention-focused health care. Our team is passionate and we are constantly trying to expand and improve our services. Our shared commitment to serve our community drives efforts to improve access to patient-centered health care for all.

Last year, Petaluma Health Center provided almost 130,000 health care visits. Thanks to the generosity and support of our community, a couple weeks ago, we opened the Rohnert Park Health Center. This new state-of-the-art 38,000-square-foot clinic doubles our physical capacity to serve our community, enabling us to provide an estimated 200,000 health care visits annually. When the Rohnert Park Health Center is fully staffed, our organization will employ almost 400 community members, including physicians, dentists, and scores of other caregivers, many of whom - like my sister - will be building new careers in the growing health care field.

As we celebrate the Rohnert Park Health Center’s grand opening, America’s Community Health Centers are celebrating a half century of providing affordable, high-quality primary and preventive health care services to medically-underserved people across the land. A key element of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” community health centers have successfully bloomed into one of the largest and most successful primary care systems in the country, with more than 1,300 Federally-Qualified Community Health Centers providing primary health care to 22 million people at about 9,000 clinic sites.

Community Health Centers across the nation are quietly celebrating this anniversary for far different reasons than the press releases suggest. While serving as a leader of preventive health care services for over five decades merits recognition, we know that access to health care is only half of the picture. Over the years, health centers have become an important pathway out of poverty for many of its very own patients by creating job opportunities.

In fact, many of our medical assistants, caregivers, and administrators are former or current health center patients, and their personal experience feeds their passion for expanding access to health care for all and their commitment to delivering excellent care for our patients. Every caregiver and staff member at Petaluma Health Center plays an integral role in changing lives within our community.

Expanding access to primary and preventive health care services will lead to better health outcomes for our patients and the community. With a trusted source of prevention-focused primary medical and dental care, people are much more likely to access preventive care in a timely manner, reducing unnecessary and costly hospital emergency room visits. Access to prevention-focused primary care keeps people healthy and out of the ER and also gives people hope and opportunities.

We’re very proud of our new Rohnert Park Health Center and thank the community for its continuing support. We’re located at 5900 State Farm Drive, 2nd Floor. In addition to primary health and dental care for adults and children, we offer wellness classes and fun group exercise. Drop by for a visit, or call for information or a medical appointment: 559-7600.

(Pedro Toledo is chief administrative officer of the Petaluma Health Center.)

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