Carson health clinic service to continue

The square, beige clinic on the corner of Roop and Beverly streets in Carson City may look small, but the service it provides is substantial for hundreds of low-income and Hispanic families.

An interpreter at the clinic is so well-known in the city's Spanish-speaking community that even families who are new to the area find their way to her.

"A lot of Hispanics come in because they know she can help them," said clinic supervisor Denise Engel.

The state-run office serves 650 to 700 patients a month with immunizations, family planning, cancer screening, women's annual exams and treats the majority of sexually transmitted diseases in the community.

Cost to receive treatment from the nurse practitioner or other nurses and clinicians is assessed on a sliding scale according to family income and size.

"We actually cannot refuse anyone service for inability to pay," Engel said.

Though the state maintains the clinic, residents recently expressed the need to provide better service and alleviate waiting times.

The Carson City Health Board, forming to localize health related programs like immunizations and family planning, may seek to take over financial management. The board, made up of city supervisors, a health officer and the sheriff, is expected to be officially formed in the next few months. Officials are still deciding how to operate and what priorities to set for community.

After talking with several professionals and residents about health issues, many expressed the need to improve services the clinic offers. If the city took over management, there would be enough funding to continue the same level of service but the city wouldn't run it, said Daren Winkelman, director of environmental health.

"The biggest part of this is Carson City really never wanted to be a service provider," Winkelman said.

Instead of expanding service at the clinic, the city would rather find a way to centralize immunization service or family planning to make it more accessible to the public. The one-stop shop would be operated by another provider, he said.

Supervisor Robin Williamson said she doesn't want the city to assume responsibility, just to become the complaint department.

"We don't want to create a Board of Health so we can get the phone calls for lack of service, instead of the state," Williamson said.

Winkelman said the board will likely want to hang on to the immunization program and begin to tie other immunization programs together throughout the city, "so we can really keep tabs on what's going on out there. Right now, it's all over the board," he said.

Contact Jill Lufrano at jlufrano@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.