Si Se Puede!
New Health Care Center Opens in Hyattsville
By Maria Lopez Bernstein
La Clínica del Pueblo and Doctors Community Hospital opened a new preventative and specialty care site at a new location adjacent to the Prince George's Plaza Metro Station in Hyattsville, Md. The outpatient clinic will help address many of the socioeconomic and cultural barriers facing the Hispanic population in Prince George's County, where 87 percent of the adult population lack medical insurance and an estimated 75 percent of them have limited English language proficiency - two factors that keep people from getting needed medical care.
Staffed by family practitioners, case managers, and community health workers, the clinic will provide bilingual and culturally competent care to underserved residents using a holistic approach that starts in the community with La Clínica as a medical home and expands with the specialty services provided at Doctors Community Hospital.
Driven by the notion that health care is a human right, at full capacity, the new clinic will provide high-quality primary care, case management, health education and promotion, insurance assistance, social services, mental health services, radiology, and specialty care. As patients begin to flow into La Clínica, "Their stories remind us why what we do is so invaluable,” reflected Lisa Wise, president of La Clínica del Pueblo. “So many members of the Latino community said that they felt untethered... but when they got to La Clínica, they finally felt like they were home.”
"The focus of this collaboration is delivering the right care, at the right time and in the right place,” shared Paul Grenaldo, chief operating officer at Doctors Community Hospital. “The clinic’s wide range of accessible services will help people prevent illnesses as well as decrease avoidable hospital admissions and readmissions. As a result, it will strengthen the healthcare fabric of our entire community while lowering healthcare costs.”
It is the idea of a welcoming medical home that has been missing for many Latino residents. Azucena Carrió, a long-time patient of La Clínica and member of its Latino patient committee, shared, “This is the best clinic, I think, around the world, for this clinic takes everyone.”
