COMMUNITY
NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 2024

Dentist Marta Tolmach and Dental Assistant Lili Mejia work with a patient at La Clinica's East Medford Dental Clinic. The clinic continues to welcome community members with urgent needs as well as a climbing number of established patients.

Dentist Marta Tolmach works with a patient at La Clinica's East Medford Dental Clinic.

Thank you to the patients who told their La Clinica stories for this newsletter.

HOW WE'RE MAKING SPACE

The Rogue Valley is short on medical providers.
La Clinica is using several approaches to create room for patients
and expects to welcome thousands this year

Doctor examining patient while mom watches

Medical residency builds capacity in second year

Growing as a training organization is one way La Clinica is building capacity to serve. Its Advanced Practitioner Residency Program will likely serve more than twice as many patients in 2025 as in 2024.

Woman with guitar in living room

One patient's story: All I wanted was a provider

Even though she was an established patient, Medford singer/songwriter Anna Tutor lost the medical care she needed to manage cancer and a chronic condition. She found help this fall through La Clinica.

Doctor talking to patient

La Clinica encourages employees to grow with it

Galen Sincerny is one of La Clinica's newest medical providers. He started his La Clinica career as a medical assistant and benefited from the organization's efforts to help employees grow in their work.

MEDICAL OPENINGS START

La Clinica expects to have room for thousands of new medical patients in 2025 as new employees join our team. Openings are available now for groups that traditionally have difficulty accessing care: patients who are insured through the Oregon Health Plan, have no insurance, or who are monolingual Spanish speakers. Wider availability is expected by spring.

GOING TO THE SOURCE: THE PATIENTS

Five members of La Clinica's Patient Insight Council gather. They include (back, from left) Leeann Myers Nordstrom, Lynne Lowe, and Wendy Daly and (front, from left) Nicole Abernathy and Rachel Daly.

Once a month, a group of patients comes together in a La Clinica meeting room. They bring stories about what drew them to get care at La Clinica, questions about what’s coming next for the organization, comments they’ve heard in the community. Most importantly, they offer up the expertise and experience of those at the heart of everything La Clinica does—patients. 

This is the Patient Insight Council, a key way La Clinica involves the people it serves in daily operations and the future of the organization. 

“It’s about bridging the gap between our patients and what we as an organization think they need or want,” said Patient Experience Manager Rosa Reyes, who organizes and guides the council. “Whenever there's an opportunity to make changes to our systems, we make sure to consider the perspective of those who will be most affected.” 

This year the Patient Insight Council has looked at efforts to ensure scheduling meets the needs of patients, healthcare providers, and the call center team making appointments. They helped evaluate the affordability of La Clinica’s income-based sliding scale. They proposed and advocated for a pilot project to put large TV screens in lobbies to show educational messages about La Clinica services. They offered feedback on the idea of changing the name of a health center to be more inclusive and welcoming. They reviewed wording on a sign aimed at stopping disruptive behavior and keeping health centers safe for all. 

Whether proposing new ideas or offering suggestions on ongoing work, the council is a channel to get vital feedback to decision-makers across La Clinica, Rosa explained.  

Wendy Daly has relied on La Clinica for care for her whole family for nearly two decades, so she and her adult daughter Rachel, who uses a wheelchair and has complex medical needs, were eager to contribute when they were asked to join the council two years ago.  

“It was great for me and especially for Rachel to have a voice, to be represented, and make a contribution that matters,” Wendy said.  

Five women in an office building

Five members of La Clinica's Patient Insight Council gather. They include (back, from left) Leeann Myers Nordstrom, Lynne Lowe, and Wendy Daly and (front, from left) Nicole Abernathy and Rachel Daly.

Five members of La Clinica's Patient Insight Council gather. They include (back, from left) Leeann Myers Nordstrom, Lynne Lowe, and Wendy Daly and (front, from left) Nicole Abernathy and Rachel Daly.

SHARE YOUR VOICE

La Clinica is looking for patients who represent the diversity of people served to join the Patient Insight Council. The group meets monthly in the early evening at one of La Clinica's centers. If you are interested, email Patient Experience Manager Rosa Reyes or Executive Assistant Debbie Graunke.  

THE START OF SOMETHING NEW

A building at 616 Market St. in Medford as it looked when La Clinica bought the property near its Wellness Center. The organization used the structure for storage for several years.

Pressed by pandemic needs, La Clinica remodeled the building in 2021 as a location to see people with respiratory symptoms. La Clinica expanded to urgent care in the tiny structure as the pandemic eased, and it served as the organization's Acute Care Clinic until a larger building across the driveway opened in 2024.

 The building will see yet another reimagining in 2025, when it becomes a standalone pharmacy for patients and community members.

A community pharmacy will open in 2025 in a building that has served as an auto dealership’s garage, storage unit, pandemic triage site, and acute care clinic. 

La Clinica will remodel a 2,700-square-foot building on the campus of its new Acute Care Clinic and Wellness Center into a standalone pharmacy that’s scheduled to open in the fall of 2025. 

The pharmacy building will serve both patients and the general community. Like La Clinica’s other pharmacies, it will offer special drug pricing available to many patients through a federal program. 

Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden spearheaded an effort to provide $2 million in funding for the building’s renovation. 

The concrete-block structure served as an auto dealership garage in its early days. When La Clinica bought the property in 2014, it first used the dilapidated structure for storage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when La Clinica needed a site where people with COVID symptoms could be seen safely, a quick remodeling job made it into a clinic. That triage site eventually turned into a small acute care location. It operated as that until earlier this year, when La Clinica opened its 7,500-square-foot Acute Care Clinic across a parking lot from the smaller building.  

PROJECT UPDATES

photo of the outside of the student health center

SOU's health center is open for students.

SOU's health center is open for students.

La Clinica serves students at Southern Oregon University

A partnership between Southern Oregon University and La Clinica launched this fall is ensuring students continue to have access to health care at school. La Clinica began operating the health center on campus in late September. It offers medical care, mental health care, and access to a host of La Clinica services available around the Rogue Valley.

Healthcare provider in clinic

At the OHRA center in Ashland

At the OHRA center in Ashland

Mobile Health Center services return late next year

Work will begin soon on La Clinica's new mobile health center, scheduled to start service near the end of 2025. Until then, care teams continue outreach efforts and work to connect people to care at one of our centers. Organizations that want to partner with La Clinica to provide care can contact Community Partnership Director Ed Smith-Burns.

WinterSpring offers grief support and education.

WinterSpring offers grief support and education.

WinterSpring connects grievers with support

La Clinica continues to offer the community free support and education on grief through the WinterSpring program. People experiencing grief can call 541-552-0620, and a team member will connect them with the support they need. Learn more about the available services or supporting the program as a volunteer by visiting the website.

FROM OUR TEAM TO YOU, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

We appreciate all you do every year to make it possible for us to continue offering care to our community. We are deeply grateful for your generosity and support.

Photo of hands holding heart

Support our work

We rely on financial contributions from community members, partners, grants, and foundations to do what we do in the community. Join our supporters today.

Photo of woman standing in front of La Clinica sign.

Join our employee team

We’re a different kind of employer, a great place to start, continue, or finish your career or even to get your feet wet for the first time in the working world. See if you're a good fit.

Photo of compass

Meet our board

La Clinica's work is guided by an ambitious, committed, and engaged group of community leaders that includes some of our patients. Learn more.

Thank you for reading. We are grateful for the community support that makes our work possible.