The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Stacey Adelson is a physician's assistant and nurse practitioner at Columbia Neighborhood Health Center. The health clinic recently received a grant to cover one-quarter of its annual costs.

Free clinic gets $25,000 grant

Columbia center offers a variety of health services

By Katherine Petersen

The Columbia Neighborhood Health Center, which opened its doors at the beginning of the 1996-97 school year, received $25,000 from Kaiser Permanente (South Bay) late last month. The donation amounts to one-quarter of the medical facility's annual costs.

The health center offers a variety of services including immunizations, emergency first aid, throat cultures and blood tests, and physical examinations to uninsured children ages infant to 20 years old who live in north Sunnyvale.

Patients are treated at no charge, said Don Jolly, director of special education and pupil services at the Sunnyvale Elementary School District. The health center staff can provide referrals for uninsured parents and diseases or injuries they don't handle.

"Our first year's goal was to serve the students, and now the community is starting to come in," said Sandie Lawrence, the nurse at the health center, a collaborative effort by the city of Sunnyvale and the school district.

Students at Columbia Middle School can attend the clinic by themselves if their parents have signed a consent form. Students who attend Lakewood, San Miguel, Fairwood and Bishop elementary schools must be accompanied by a parent, Lawrence said. From November 1996 to March 1997, the health center served 272 children during 450 visits, said site manager Rocio Abundis-Rodriguez.

"We want to keep kids healthy so they don't miss school and minimize class time lost by having to go to an outside doctor," Abundis-Rodriguez said.

If a Columbia student has a bad headache, the health center can give out Tylenol, she added. Students' parents are contacted for more serious problems. People can either make appointments or walk in.

The Columbia Neighborhood Health Center's goal--to make sure uninsured children get the treatment they need--fits with Kaiser's focus, said Andrea Leiderman, Kaiser's manager of business and government affairs.

"We're trying to impact vulnerable populations in a feasible manner, so we're stepping up to the plate with this grant to the [health] center. We believe strongly in supporting ongoing efforts," Leiderman said. "The Columbia Neighborhood Health Center is filling a great need."

The center, which received a $93,000 grant from the El Camino Hospital District to get started and has staff provided by Mayview Community Health Center in Mountain View, would like to expand its hours but has to find more funding first, Jolly said.

"It's been very successful and overwhelmingly positive," he said. "The need is definitely there."

The health center, located at 739 Morse Ave. in Sunnyvale, offers free immunizations and tuberculosis skin tests with no appointment necessary on July 29 from noon to 3 p.m.

To schedule an appointment for a physical exam, parents can call 523-8150. The health center's hours are Mon.-Thu. from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 16, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.