Valley Health Team Begins $1 Million Expansion of Health Center in Rural San Joaquin Area
Valley Health Team Inc. on Tuesday began a $1 million expansion project at the group's health center in San Joaquin, the Fresno Bee reports. The health center, founded in 1973, provides medical services for farm families and employees in the rural San Joaquin area who in the past had to drive about 50 minutes to Fresno to receive treatment. The expansion includes a helicopter landing pad, an ambulance station, a mobile care unit and new medical and educational offices. The new corporate offices will allow the health center to increase patient visits from 32,000 to 36,000 per year, the Bee reports. Valley Health, which expects to complete the expansion by Feb. 28, 2003, financed the project through the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, the Cedillo-Alarcon Community Clinic Investment Act of 2000 and the Help II Loan Program. Valley Health has 52 employees, including doctors, dentists and an optometrist. The group, which serves about 60,000 patients per year, also administers the Kerman Health Center and the Valley Optometric Center in Kerman (Steinberg, Fresno Bee, 4/24).
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