La Clinica Opens New, Bigger Facility

La Clinica Celebrates Opening Of New State-of-the-art Health Clinic

• New 17,000-square-foot facility includes expanded medical and dental services, behavioral health and a senior program for Contra Costa County residents

• UnitedHealthcare invested $4.6 million; additional contributions include $800,000 from John Muir/Mount Diablo Community Health Fund and $400,000 from Kaiser Permanente

La Clínica de la Raza opened Thursday its newest clinic – La Clínica Monument – to provide quality health care for low-income and uninsured children and adults in Contra Costa County. 

The nonprofit held a community open house Thursday to celebrate the opening of the new 17,000-square-foot health care facility in Concord that is expected to serve more than 15,000 patients annually. The facility replaces a 5,000-square-foot clinic in Pleasant Hill.

Thursday’s community open house celebration included a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Congressman George Miller, state Senator Mark DeSaulnier, Contra Costa County Supervisor Karen Mitchoff and other local, state and federal officials. Community residents, volunteers and patients joined in the celebration, which included food and entertainment, and La Clínica staff were on hand to help answer questions and provide tours following the ceremony.

The facility, located at 2000 Sierra Road near Concord’s Monument corridor, includes expanded medical, dental and vision services as well as health education, chronic disease management and senior services. The clinic also provides preventive care to the uninsured and underinsured population to help reduce unnecessary and non-reimbursable emergency room visits.

“Opening the doors to the public in this beautiful, new state-of-the-art building means more than just providing one-stop comprehensive health care. It is fulfilling a promise to the people of this community,” said Jane García, CEO of La Clínica.

“By expanding our services, we are helping to make this a stronger, healthier community. In our previous location we could provide care to about 4,000 patients annually. With this new facility we will be able to more than triple that number.”

“Congratulations to La Clínica on opening this new facility here in Concord,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA).  “This larger facility brings a new set of services that will benefit our growing community. Today’s celebration marks an important milestone and achievement for La Clínica and all the partners who helped make this day happen.” 

“I am thrilled to be joining with the community today to celebrate the grand opening of La Clínica Monument,” state Sen. DeSaulnier said. “This new facility brings innovative health and wellness programs and expands medical care to Contra Costa County residents.” 

La Clínica began its $10.6 million capital campaign in 2009, raising more than $1.6 million in seed money from John Muir Mount Diablo Community Health Fund ($800,000), Kaiser Permanente ($400,000), the Thomas J. Long Foundation ($200,000) and the HEDCO Foundation ($226,000).

La Clínica was also awarded approximately $1 million from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a 10% of the total project cost.   

UnitedHealthcare, which offers health benefits to more than 2.3 million Californians, invested $3.9 million in La Clínica by purchasing the nonprofit’s tax-exempt revenue bonds and providing more than $700,000 in grants to help pay for additional costs, for a total of more than $4.6 million in support.

The bonds were purchased through UnitedHealthcare’s California Health Care Investment Program, which supports health care organizations that provide services to underserved, low-income and underinsured communities and populations throughout the state. The investment program to date has provided $224 million in total investments to 30 healthcare organizations in California.

 “La Clínica Monument is an important addition to this community that will provide critical health, wellness and prevention services to residents and families in the Monument Corridor and beyond,” said Dan Rosenthal, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual of Northern California. “We are honored to support La Clínica by providing funding for this facility that is helping expand access to quality care for residents in this region.”

For more information about the new facility and La Clínica clinics in the Bay Area visit www.laclinica.org.