Mariposa Community Health Clinic
Wednesday, 07 April 2010 23:20
A kid jumps around the entrance to the Mariposa Community Health Clinic. Darting about with a toy in his hand, he reaches for the door.
"Don't you go in there," his mother said between drags of her cigarette.
On the inside, sun shines through the skylights on the patients waiting to be seen. The waiting area has room for 60 or 70 people.
Since 1980, The Mariposa Community Health Clinic has been serving rural Santa Cruz County. Located at 1852 N. Mastick Way, Nogales, Ariz., people come from all over the county for services.
Jennifer E. Cuidad, from Rio Rico, sat in the waiting room of the clinic.
"I'm not a patient here," she said. "I'm just here to see my oncologist."
Her oncologist, Dr. Gonzalez-Osete, was coming down for his monthly visit, and his visits were bi-weekly, she said.
Cuidad was a patient at the clinic in 1994 when she moved to the area. She moved to a new medical provider in 2000 when she took her son to a pediatrician recommended by her neighbor.
Cuidad said the long waits were one of the reasons she left.
"We serve 19,000 patients," said James R. Welden, chief executive officer of the clinic. Welden has been with the clinic since it began as a part of the Santa Cruz County Health Department.
In 1980, Tad Pfister, the previous Santa Cruz County Health Director, asked Weldon to start up a clinic for the county. Welden left his graduate program at The University of Arizona to do just that, Welden said.
In 1985, the clinic became a private non-profit. The clinic receives private and public funding. Every patient pays for service. However, those patients who are in need pay on a sliding scale. The health center accepts most insurance plans. Some even come up from Nogales, Sonora - "less than 10 percent," Weldon said.
"We're a one stop shop," Welden said. Patients can get X-rays, mammograms, prescriptions and dental work.
Along with providing services, the health center stretches beyond the clinic walls. The center goes out into the community to educate with their health promotion and disease prevention programs.
The health center has been able to expand to Rio Rico and Patagonia, Ariz. In Rio Rico, they have a health center that has a dentist as well as family practice. However, in Patagonia, they offer family medicine.
"We're proud of what we do here," Welden said.
View Mariposa community Health in a larger map
Written by WJ Anderson You are reading Mariposa Community Health Clinic articles
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