International Community Health Services will open a 5,000 square-foot clinic in the Crossroads area next year to specifically treat low-income and uninsured patients.
“There are no other providers in the immediate area that serve low-income and uninsured patients,” said Christine Loredo, the marketing and communications supervisor for the organization.
Between 21.7 and 47 percent of those living near the clinic currently go elsewhere for similar low income health clinics – with 21.7 percent traveling rom the 98005 zip code and 47 percent from the 98052 zip code.
The clinic is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2013.
It will be the third International Community Health Services clinic to open since the organization was founded in Seattle’s International District almost 40 years ago. Back then, ICHS served mostly low-income immigrants from the Philippines, China and Japan.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, the clinics started seeing more Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian patients, and more recently, it expanded to serve an even wider variety, after opening a clinic in the Holly Park Neighborhood in the Rainer Valley. That clinic serves the most diverse zip code in the nation, 98118, with large Somali, East African, Latino and Russian, populations.
Staff at the clinic speak 15 different languages and serve a patient population that speaks up to 50 different languages. For clients whose languages aren’t represented by a member of organization’s staff, the center contracts with outside interpreters, or uses a phone interpreting service.
“We don’t turn anyone away,” Loredo said. “We provide care to anyone. Even if they don’t have insurance, they can get treatment for a chronic infection. They can get care and pay maybe a sliding scale fee, or we can help them figure out insurance coverage that they may qualify for.”
Services provided include primary medical care, dental services, in-house pharmacy services and a basic laboratory. The clinic in the International District also has acupuncture and other alternative medicine.
“We also provide health education, and most patients who come in who are not insured, we have workers on staff who help them learn more and apply for subsidized medical services and maternity support services,” Loredo said.
