Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
East Linn Community Health Center opened Friday, Feb. 1, with a small ribbon-cutting ceremony at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.
The new community clinic will serve east county residents who have no health insurance or are under-insured, officials said.
A small crowd of hospital and clinic board members, organizers and public officials gathered in the hospital’s training center to witness the official opening of the clinic. It is the result of a $600,000 federal grant, awarded in December, and is a cooperative venture between LCH, Benton Community Health Clinic in Corvallis and the Linn County Public Health Department.
State Rep. Andy Olson (R-Albany), whose district includes part of Lebanon, said the clinic will help solve problems caused by the lack of health insurance, even among working people. Many patients, who don’t have insurance, are going straight to hospital emergency rooms for care, he said.
“Yes, we do have a health care process in the state,” Olson said. “It’s in the emergency room.”
LCH Chief Executive Officer Becky Pape said the clinic will help get patients the health care they need without a lot of red tape and runaround.
“The patients are here; they need to be cared for,” she said. “Wouldn’t it make sense to get them to proper care providers at the beginning?”
Pape predicted that the collaboration behind the clinic is a concept that will draw attention.
“I think the cooperation helped us get the grant,” she said. “It was great to get that government check because, as board members here can tell you, I can spend it.
“This will be copied.”
The clinic has opened in Building A in the Lebanon Professional Center, across Highway 20 from the hospital. Patients are already being seen, though some staff members are still being hired, said Cheryl Dahl, executive director of the Benton Community Health Center, who is overseeing the start-up process. Services will expand over the next few weeks, she said, until it offers primary care and basic services, as well as family planning and mental health services in conjunction with Linn County Health.
Tim McQueary of Sweet Home, a board member of the Benton Clinic, said the clinic presents “such a great opportunity” for Linn and Benton counties to work together.
“I think we have to look at the types of things we do these days regionally,” he said. “None of us have the resources to do it ourselves. But we can with other communities.”
Pape said the opening of the clinic is one of a series of new developments recently for the hospital. Two weeks ago the hospital announced that it was cooperating with Western University of Health Services in Pomona, Calif., to establish a medical school on 51 acres across Highway 20 from the hospital.
“It seems like we are really busy in Lebanon, boldly going where no one has gone before,” she said.