Sun Valley School Health Facility Breaks Ground
KQED's "The California Report" on Thursday reported on the groundbreaking on Wednesday to build a large community health clinic on the grounds of Sun Valley Middle School in eastern San Fernando Valley. The project is a collaboration between the Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles County (Rabe, "The California Report," KQED, 5/25).
The facility will be the largest campus-based clinic in the nation (California Healthline, 1/25).
KQED reports that the clinic, which could open within one year and will cost $7 million, will be a full-service facility operated by Northeast Valley Health, a not-for-profit organization that runs 10 other clinics. Los Angeles County is funding the construction of the clinic on land donated by the school district.
According to KQED, the clinic's "potential benefits seem endless," including providing health care for students and parents, increasing attendance-based reimbursement for the schools and decreasing hospital and emergency department use for primary care.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he hopes the Sun Valley clinic will become a national model of government agency collaboration and of providing health care to residents. Yaroslavsky said the San Fernando Valley, especially the eastern portion, is a "medically underserved area for primary care" and has a high percentage of uninsured residents.
The KQED segment also includes comments from:
- Linda Acuna McClellan, school nurse at Sun Valley;
- Tony Delgado, principal of Sun Valley; and
- Theresa Nitescu, chief operating officer for NEVHC ("The California Report," KQED, 5/25).