Thursday, August 18, 2011

Business
The Gonzales Cannon

Page A7

Clinic ribbon-cutting

The Community Health Center of South Central Texas held ribbon-cutting ceremonies Friday at their new facility on St. George Street. The clinic is the home of the WIC program, which promotes healthy nutrition programs for women and infants (right). (Photos by Nikki Maxwell)

By NIKKI MAXWELL

New dental clinic planned in 2015

The Community Health Center of South Central Texas in Gonzales officially opened their new clinic Friday The Womens Wellness Center and WIC (Women Infants and Children). The clinic is dedicated to the health of women and children in Gonzales and the surrounding area. Construction on the site, located on St. George St. in downtown Gonzales, began last year and was completed last month. Funding for the facility came from several grants and other financial sources. Together we have accomplished so much, its wonderful, said Community Health Clinic CEO Henry Salas. According to Salas, none of the funding to build the new clinic was borrowed, and therefore the facility is debt free. We have no accumulated debt, it has all been paid for, he said. Thats the direction we wanted to take from the beginning. Debt is what gets health centers in trouble. He said the Community Health Clinics budget is $8,239,514, has net assets of $2,301,599, and $4,087,270 for personnel. We have had a growth of $1,791,694 since the current board has taken over, Salas said. All the growth and this expansion project were paid for through foundation federal grants. He told The Cannon that more than $500,000 in free medication has been given to patients at the Gonzales clinic in the past two years. Salas said that is possible through the Pfizer Program, Astra-Zenica, and direct relief prescription assistance programs. He said if qualified, patients can take home a free 90 day supply of their prescriptions. We are not a free clinic, that is a common misunderstanding, Salas said. We have many patients with health insurance and the others pay what they can afford. Patrick Caldwell, Womens Health Nurse Practitioner, offered a tour of the new clinic and a brief history of the facility. Caldwell has been employed by the center since 1984.

WIC Clinic opens; Bluebonnet Trails relocates

Gonzales Mayor Bobby ONeal said the city is in full support of the clinics expansion. With the conveyance of the land to the Community Health Clinic, what a fine facility you have here, ONeal said. He and Rep. John Keumpel recognized Salas for his work to help the community and thanked him on behalf of the whole community. Salas told The Cannon that the dental clinic is expanding soon, thanks to a grant from the St. Davids Foundation. The funds include $661,000 to pay for a dentist, staff and to build a new building dedicated to dental services. He said construction is expected to begin in 2-3 years, and services will include braces, crowns and other orthodontic care. The clinic already has a very busy dental staff, offering cleanings, checkups and fillings. We are one stop shopping for health and dental services, Salas said. People from Port LaVaca even come here for their dental care because of our sliding pay scale. The clinic also celebrated the new partnership with Bluebonnet Trails MHMR. The community service organization recently relocated to the clinics main building. We are so grateful for this and the citys support, said Andrea Richardson, of Bluebonnet and the Behavioral Health Department. We integrated our facility with Bluebonnet and combined our resources to save money, Salas said. They moved all their programs into our building and now their psychiatrist is working with our physicians. I think the relationship is great, and we share human resources costs because we use their HR department. He said the clinic is outsourcing their billing, which lost some positions but saved the clinic money. We also outsourced our accounting services, but due to a reorganization of our staff we did not lose any personnel with that, Salas said. Better to rightsize than get into a cash crunch, and we are not cutting any of our services. He said they are picking up the slack from other community health clinics in the area and look forward to con-

newseditor@gonzalescannon.com

We felt like we needed to do more for women in this community, Caldwell said. She said the new clinic has seven examination rooms, allowing for more appointments for patients. She said 150-200 women come to the clinic from within Gonzales County and the surrounding area. I thank you for allowing us to build this and serve the whole community, Caldwell said during the celebration Friday. She introduced Dr. Azeema Moosa, the OB/ GYN on staff at the womens clinic. Moosa spoke to the crowd about the importance of womens reproductive health services. Without places like the family planning clinic here and birth control, there would be thousands more unwanted pregnancies and abortions in our country, Moosa said. Were very lucky to have a place like this clinic where we can help women and children with their essential health needs. And as an OB/GYN I can take it a step further. She said many women suffer silently with extreme pain, not knowing what their options are or where to get help. We are here for you, to answer your questions and help you feel better, Moosa said. On the wall of the clinic a bulletin board covered with nearly a hundred baby pictures. On another wall is a picture of a newborn baby with a pink shirt that reads: I got my first hug from Dr. Moosa. WIC Director Emma Garza said she is very grateful for the new clinic. We needed a new place, Garza said. We started in 1978 with three people here in Gonzales. Working with WIC grows on you and we have a great staff. She said the WIC staff enjoy helping new moms with breast feeding support. We are a family, Garza Henry Salas, the CEO of the Community Health Center of South Central Texas, speaks during Fridays ribbon-cutting ceremonies. (Photo by Nikki Maxwell) said.

tinuing their growth in patients and services. We applied for a point access grant to open a clinic in Yoakum, but we were turned down for the funding, Salas said. Our application was strong, but the 350 projects were cut down to 260, and then to just 60 throughout the state. He said the Gonzales site serves more than 1,800 people from Lavaca and DeWitt Counties. Our hope is another grant will be available to build in Yoakum. We want to be there, Salas said. Usually you find that Hispanics have the most health issues in this area, however we learned that in Yoakum, the German-Americans are the ones with the most health problems. We want to help them. He said the dominant health issues in Yoakum include diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, mostly due to a traditional diet of heavy, fatty foods. The Womens Health Clinic offers healthy cooking classes every Tuesday at 4 p.m., open to everyone. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call (830) 672-6511.

Proud of new facility

04 Nissan Xterra..................Stk. #4341...Silver, Clean........$11,800 05 Ford Expedition.............Stk. #4343...................................$13,500 04 Dodge Dakota.................Stk. #4348.....White, clean,..........$9,800 07 Dodge Charger...............Stk. #4355...Sporty, Silver.........$13,900

Call Frank at 830-857-8017 or 830-263-1441

Frank Supak

Full Plumbing Services

office 830-672-9226 fax 830-672-2006
emaiL: aLLSeaSonSaire@yahoo.com
TACLB6030C/M-37285

08 Scion-XB Great Fuel Mileage, Sporty

04 Nissan Armado Pathfinder

#43

20

$14,500

#43

Great Looking, SUV, Tow Pkg.

23

$15,900

04 Cadillac Escalade ESB Pewter, Tow Pkg, Smooth, Ride

1229 St. Lawrence GonzaLeS, texaS 78629

All Vehicles + TT&L

www.westmotors.com

West Motors

#43

31

$15,500

04 GMC Yukon XL White, 2wd, Running Boards.

#43

34

$12,900

1800 Sarah DeWitt