/24-7PressRelease/ - SAN MARCOS, CA, March 07, 2008 - It's 1973 in North San Diego County: gas is 40 a gallon, the barcode is just being invented, one billion people tune into the Elvis 'Aloha from Hawaii' television special, and a small group of volunteers opens a community health clinic in Ramona.
Fast forward to 2008, and that one community health clinic has evolved into North County Health Services, a network of nine clinics in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside, San Marcos, and Ramona plus one mobile clinic and two new health centers on the immediate horizon in San Marcos and Oceanside.
This year, NCHS celebrates 35 years of service providing comprehensive medical care to 60,000 patients annually. Gas prices have skyrocketed and reality television has taken over the remote, but the vision and mission of NCHS remains the same: to improve the health status of North County's diverse communities by providing quality healthcare that is comprehensive, affordable, and culturally sensitive.
Services include pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, internal medicine, adolescent medicine, dental care, mental health services and radiology. It also conducts community outreach and prevention programs such as a pediatric asthma program that has cut asthma-related hospitalizations among its participants by close to 90%. Through all of these impactful programs, NCHS has served over two million people in North County since 1973.
Currently, NCHS is building a 12,000 square-foot facility in Oceanside to meet the growing need for its services in that community, which has overwhelmed the capacity of its existing facility there. Slated to open in 2009, the new facility will increase the number of patient visits by 20 percent.
NCHS offers a medical home to its patients by coordinating their healthcare needs and improving their health outcomes. "What the broader community may not see is the effect NCHS and similar clinics have on their health care experience. NCHS reduces unnecessary hospital and emergency visits by its patients, provides employment and job training, and infuses more than $35,000,000 annually into the North San Diego regional economy," said Cota.
For more information on North County Health Services, visit http://www.nchs-health.org or call 760-736-6767.
Contact:
Pia Mangini
Tel: (760) 736-8612
pia.mangini@nchs-health.org
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