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Neighborhood Healthcare Overview and Escondido sites

Neighborhood Healthcare ~ El Cajon

Neighborhood Healthcare ~ Lakeside

Neighborhood Healthcare ~ Pauma Valley

Neighborhood Healthcare ~ Temecula

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2010

Founded in 1969 and incorporated in 1971, Neighborhood Healthcare is an award-winning organization that is known for excelling at its mission. This year we are proud to celebrate 40 years of continuous service to the community. The mission has remained the same over the years: to provide quality health care and promote wellness to everyone in our communities, focusing on those most in need. As a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) community health organization, we serve as a safety net for the community by providing medical, dental and behavioral health services to 68,000 people annually in almost 270,000 visits. Neighborhood Healthcare began as an all-volunteer neighborhood clinic in Escondido and now has ten health centers located throughout San Diego and Riverside counties. Ninety-eight percent of our patients live 200% below the federal poverty level.

Neighborhood Healthcare has consistently provided high quality care when compared to national standards. Services include pediatric and adult primary care, prenatal care, family planning, HIV testing and medical care, women’s health, dental services, behavioral health/counseling, health education, and basic pharmacy & lab services. We have full service behavioral health/counseling services in Escondido, Temecula and El Cajon with services starting in Pauma Valley in 2010. Behavioral health services are also integrated with primary care at some locations by locating a behavioral health therapist in the primary care setting, allowing for immediate behavioral health assessment and intervention for patients during their primary care visit. Our geriatricians provide specialized care for the elderly and provide medical directorship for two skilled nursing facilities in the north inland service area of San Diego County. Our Hospitalist program provides adult inpatient care for patients without a health insurance or a regular physician who are admitted to Palomar Medical Center (Escondido) or Pomerado Hospital (Poway). In order to meet the changing health needs of the community, we have opened specialized health centers focusing on the needs of older adults, children and women.

Health programs for chronic disease and wellness are essential for promoting good health. Health programs include:

• Project Dulce Diabetes self-management program
• Childhood Asthma education
• Health care through the San Diego County Care Initiative for uninsured patients with diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome
• Enrollment assistance for Healthy Families and Medi-Cal
• Parenting classes
• Breast feeding classes
• HIV outreach, education, testing, counseling, and medical care
• Peer driven services for teen pregnancy prevention programs
• Dental health education and outreach to promote dental health in children
• Homeless services include outreach to assure that homeless receive needed health, dental and behavioral health services
• Outreach to isolated monolingual senior Latinos conducted by senior Promotores to identify Latino seniors at risk for depression
• Interventions for overweight children through the Neighborhood Healthcare ~ KP KIDS health promotion program  

Neighborhood Healthcare has a quality leadership team with longevity in the organization. For 22 years the Chief Executive Officer, Tracy Ream, has provided inspired leadership, spearheading the expansion of the organization from a one-site health center with seven staff members, to a ten site, multi-county health system with 450 employees. She has effectively planned and managed growth utilizing a strong leadership team, a committed staff, and the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors includes members who have been with us since the 1970’s and includes both professionals and patients of Neighborhood Healthcare. The annual operating budget is over $31 million and significantly contributes to the economy of San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties.

Our philosophy and structure fosters a spirit of partnership. Strong links are maintained with the San Diego Council of Community Clinics, Grossmont Hospital, Palomar Pomerado Health, WIC, Headstart, Migrant Education, churches, school districts, and many community-based collaboratives dedicated to improving the overall health status of its communities.

Who do we help?
Our patients are low-income individuals, underinsured and uninsured, and others with barriers to health care. An emerging patient population is the middle class who are losing their jobs due to the economic crisis and are looking to Neighborhood Healthcare for their health care. Many minority communities are served including Latinos, East Africans and Asian Pacific Islanders. Recent immigrants from Iran, Iraq and other war torn Middle Eastern countries are some of the fastest growing minority populations coming through our doors.

Where can you find our health centers?
You can find our health centers in Escondido, Pauma Valley, El Cajon, Lakeside and Temecula. Cities in our service area include Escondido, San Marcos, Poway, Rancho Penasquitos, Valley Center, Pauma Valley, Pala, El Cajon, Lakeside, Santee, La Mesa, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, and surrounding communities.  These cities spread across a broad stretch of land in San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties. It is a rectangle, 80 miles north to south, and 20 miles east to west, in a continuous stretch of land from the Mexican border and ending at Lake Elsinore in Riverside County. We are around 15 to 20 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. On the entire east border of the service area, there are large pockets of rural agricultural areas that are remote and house migrant workers. All our health centers are in the Border Health Designation area (up to 62 miles from the Mexican border) or in the Binational Health Designation area (just outside the 62 mile radius).

An association with Neighborhood Healthcare is an association with excellence.