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On April 5, Kaweah Delta held a grand opening for its new Tulare Health Clinic, which will provide access to care in one of the most clinically underserved counties in California.

The new 10,800-square-foot clinic is located at 1000 N. Mooney Blvd. in Tulare, the former IRS building on the corner of Prosperity Avenue and Mooney Boulevard. It has 20 exam rooms, a lab onsite for patients, and three behavioral health rooms for therapy, psychiatry and eventually, child psychiatry.

"We're very excited about our holistic care model of integrating behavioral health with the medical care of our patients," said Ryan Gates, vice president of population health for Kaweah Delta. "We imbed community care coordinators within all of our locations to work as team with the patient and the care providers to not just address the medical needs of our patients, but their social, mental and behavioral health needs as well. We will be expanding access to psychiatry, including child psychiatry, and specialty care later this summer,"

"Often times patients who are underserved do not have resources for medical care and many times go without," said Dr. Rogelio Fernandez, the clinic's medical director, noting that 80% of his patients in the area have been Spanish speakers, with the vast majority being farm workers or lower income patients. "The fact that we've opened this clinic is going to provide a place for people to receive the care that they so deserve."

Primary and walk-in care is available to patients from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the Tulare Health Clinic. For appointments, visit http://www.kaweahdelta.org/tulare or call (559) 624-6358.

Visalia Emergency

Department Expansion

On April 13, Kaweah Delta Medical Center unveiled its newly expanded Emergency Department to help better serve patients and meet the needs of the more than 90,000 patients seeking care every year in one of the busiest emergency departments in the state.

"This expansion has been critically needed for a number of years and long-awaited by us and the community," said Gary Herbst, Kaweah Delta CEO. "Emergency care is first and foremost what the community expects from us, but we know it has been frustrating for them, and for us, because of overcrowding. With the opening of this new 'Zone 5' area of our emergency department, we will now have an additional 24 exam rooms in which to care for our emergency department patients."

This is the final phase of expansion of the only trauma center between Bakersfield and Fresno. In two years, the Kaweah Delta emergency department has more than doubled in size, growing from 32 to 73 beds, which includes:

• 48 beds for general emergency care (with four beds designated for pediatric patients and four beds for dialysis patients);

• Nine beds for behavioral health;

• Eight beds for critical care; and

• An eight-bed area where the team can care for patients with minor illnesses and injuries.

Additionally, this final phase increases the waiting area from seating 65 people to more than 100. The waiting area now features flat-screen TVs to help improve communication with patients and visitors by providing them with a unique code to receive real-time updates on the course of their care.