Breaking ground for clinic

Sisters took a big step toward finding a permanent home for its school-based health clinic last Friday.

Officials from Deschutes County Health Services, county commissioners, school officials and others gathered on property donated by the developers of McKenzie Meadows, adjacent to Sisters High School, to break ground on the future 2,700-square-foot clinic facility. For the past two years, the clinic has been operating out of a trailer adjacent to Reed Stadium.

The clinic will provide primary care for underserved populations in Sisters Country. While it's school-based, the clinic will also serve adults.

"There are a lot of uninsured adults and underinsured seniors," said Kate Moore, RN, a program manager with Deschutes County Health Services.

The clinic will provide behavioral health services, which have had limited availability in the area.

"We can provide a lot more behavioral health to the students," Moore said.

The construction will be funded through a federal Health Resources and Services (HRSA) grant of $500,000. Deschutes County, which applied for the grant, is also contributing $150,000. The clinic is in the second year of a three-year $25,000-per-year grant from St. Charles Family Health.

Funding for ongoing operations of the Sisters clinic as well as others in the region is in question, as Deschutes County commissioners warn that they will have to become less dependent on county funds for long-term funding.

"We are really looking to build partnerships for sustainability," Moore said.

Moore noted that dental services will be part of the package, through assistance from Advantage Dental, although, she acknowledged, "we're not sure how that's going to look yet."

The clinic will be staffed part-time by a family nurse practitioner and a pediatric nurse practitioner. There's a focus on family medicine and preventative care.

"We're not like an emergency room," Moore explained. "We're really most like patient-centered primary care."

The connection with adults and seniors will evolve as McKenzie Meadows fulfills plans to develop a senior center on the property, which is owned by the Reed, Willitts and Kallberg families of Sisters.

Superintendent Jim Golden discussed the connection between health care and successful education.

"Healthier kids will be in school more, they'll do better in school and they'll be better citizens."

He also expressed enthusiasm about another opportunity to "integrate the older folks in the community with the kids."

photo by Jim Cornelius