The overall health and wellbeing of Turlock is a little bit better today than it was a week ago, thanks to the new and improved Turlock Health Center.
Healthcare, business, government and community leaders gathered on Thursday to celebrate the grand opening of THC’s new location at 2141 Colorado Ave.
“We proudly open these doors to our new clinic in Turlock. This is a significant milestone for us serving this community. Because this community is growing and vibrant. And as a community that we want to be a part of, this new facility is more than just a building for us. It represents the combination of our dedication, our hard work, and our unwavering commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of every community that we care about…
“This newly renovated space has allowed us to add three additional exam rooms and that allows us to serve an additional 1,000 patients that are brand new and unique that maybe are not in our system today and that also generates another 3,000 visits for people to be able to be seen in this area,” said Leslie Abasta-Cummings, CEO of Livingston Community Health, the organization that operates Turlock Health Center.
Livingston Community Health, a federally funded nonprofit health center that serves medically underserved areas and populations, just celebrated its 50th anniversary. While LCH is based out of Livingston, it operates nine clinics throughout Stanislaus and Merced counties. In 2020, LCH took over operations of the county-run Turlock Health Center on the corner of Delbon and Olive Avenue.
The new Turlock Health Center is within sightline of the old office, something that was intentional, according to Abasta-Cummings.
“Part of the decision around staying in and around the hospital was to keep the settings accessible for our patients throughout the system. Patients struggle with transportation, and so the closer we can be located to mass transit or easier to get to communities, particularly in a place like Turlock, was important to us. It's also part of the organization's commitment to being located in rural areas, so places like Delhi and Waterford that really make up kind of the fabric of that community,” she said.
According to Abasta-Cummings, the Turlock clinic makes up 22% of the organization’s patient encounters, making it one the busiest of LCH’s locations.
“This was a an effort to retain physicians in this community and one that already has a physician shortage,” she said about the expansion. “Here in Turlock, and all of our clinics, we really just aim to bridge this gap and continue to provide integrated, comprehensive, compassionate care to everybody that we serve. This is not just an underserved population that we serve today… everybody is kind of underserved. When it comes to primary care, mental health, dental services Livingston Community Health remains steadfast and committed to meeting the need as much as we can.”
LCH is also helping train more healthcare providers for the area.
“At any given point, we're training anywhere from four to 10 new nurse practitioners from the CSU Stanislaus system. We also have a very strong ties to the University of Pacific training program, and that's everything from masters in social work, pharmacy students to dental students…We very much lean into the training side as we recognize its importance in future recruitment,” said Abasta-Cummings.
LCH also puts an emphasis on community partnerships, including Legacy Health Endowment and Emanuel Medical Center.
In 2018, Legacy Health Endowment, in partnership with LCH, announced a $1.6 million gift to California State University, Stanislaus for the purpose of establishing a family nurse practitioner master’s degree program at the Turlock campus.
Legacy Health CEO Jeffrey Lewis called Abasta-Cummings a “healthcare visionary.”
“Today's celebration is about Livingston Community Health, but it's really about us, because it's the vision. It's understanding what the community needs. It's really about putting the pieces together, recognizing how to work with physicians, how to have staff that can grow, and how to be a great partner,” said Lewis during THC’s grand opening.
LCH has provided mobile vaccine clinics at area schools and recently partnered with Emanuel Medical Center’s Ruby E. Bergman Women’s Diagnostics Center to provide mammograms.
“The opening of the Turlock clinic is not just about a new building for us. It is about a brighter and healthier future for our community,” said Abasta-Cummings.
