United States

Downey Regional Medical Center’s Family Care Clinic

Overview
Downey Regional Medical Center (DWMC) and Amrit Davaa World Health Corporation have partnered to create a primary, preventative and urgent care family clinic in Downey, CA. to serve the underserved and underinsured in Southeastern Los Angeles County. The clinic will serve the local community in this area who are in desperate need of a healthcare home where children, adults and elderly can receive the full spectrum of primary and preventative care in a financially feasible venue. The closure of local ERs as well as the economic downtown has made this new service more needed than ever for Downey’s underserved residents. The Real Medicine Foundation is partnering with DWMC to attract donations and provide assistance with grant applications. If you would like to make a donation or get involved, please contact Carly Panchura at carly@realmedicinefoundation.org.

New Family Care Clinic
Access to preventative medicine is the key to a healthy community. This begins with access to primary care health services that partner with the patient to provide education as well as direct care. The proposed clinic's education, preventative care, and holistic, family-centered approach will decrease morbidity, decrease healthcare costs, improve emergency room wait-time for those with true emergency medical problems and overall improve the quality of life for DRMC’s surrounding communities.

The clinic will also be a team training site for DRMC’s Family Practice residents, medical students, nursing students, Family Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants in training, Optometry/Podiatry/Dental students in training from Western University of Health Sciences.

Clinic services are expected to include:
    •    Comprehensive Primary care for children, adults and seniors
    •    Pre-natal care and education
    •    Preventive education on asthma, diabetes, heart disease, HIV, STD’s, teen pregnancy, obesity
    •    Women, Infants & Children (WIC) enrollment
    •    Urgent care services
    •    Basic radiology and lab services
    •    Some medication services
    •    After hours and weekend appointments
    •    Patients seen regardless of ability to pay
    •    Nutritional and exercise education

The clinic’s services will address a wide range of family health issues from perinatal to geriatrics (including immunizations, diagnosis management, monitoring of chronic diseases, prenatal care, child wellness, nutrition, disease prevention and screening) and will provide urgent care services on a walk-in basis.

In addition to primary and urgent care services for indigent patients as well as those within the traditional DRMC service area, the Clinic will serve as a referral source for low-income populations and as a follow-up facility for those discharged from the hospital. Patient visits are estimated to begin at 20 per day and increase to 70 per day within 6-8 months of clinic opening.

Real Medicine Foundation’s Partners
Established in 1920, Downey Regional Medical Center is a 199-bed hospital that provides care to over 100,000 patients annually. It is the only free-standing, full-service, not-for-profit community hospital providing health care in South Los Angeles. DRMC’s mission is to serve the changing healthcare needs of its surrounding communities by responsibly providing consistent excellence in all aspects of patient care today with a special focus on individuals and populations in need.

Current programs and services offered include: a Diabetes Education Institute, a 24-treatment bed Emergency Care Center, a Family Birth Center, a Heart Center, Rehabilitation Services, Surgical Care, and education and training programs (DRMC is a training site for a Family Practice Intern and Residency program, as well as the only Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine Residency Program on the West Coast.) DRMC’s current community benefit services also include charity care for patients, absorbing the cost of unpaid care patients with Medi-Cal, Medicare and the uninsured. DRMC’s service area has traditionally included Downey, Bell, Bellflower, Cerritos, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs and Southgate. This core service area population of 931,000 includes approximately 10% non-Hispanic White, 5% African-American and 76% Hispanic, of whom 46% have less than a 12th grade education.

Amrit Davaa World Health Corporation is a non-profit organization comprised of a consortium of diverse, compassionate volunteer healthcare practitioners with a passion to serve the global human community in need. ADWH is notably successful in clinic work around the world, striving to work within the existing developmental strategies and medical philosophies of the cultures and communities it assists. Through its humanitarian missions, ADWH helps communities and people get healthy not only by treating their current medical conditions, but by working with them to create sustainable healthcare facilities and preventative measures in their communities and beyond. Its approach is holistic, looking at the whole person and the whole community: medicines, food sources, sanitation, water sources, living conditions, education, spiritual and psychological well-being.

If you would like to make a donation or get involved in this project, please contact Carly Panchura at carly@realmedicinefoundation.org.