A clinical touch

Angelique Flores

The waiting room is filled with people quietly sitting until their names

are called. Everything is clean -- from the marble floors to the pretty

prints on the walls. Doctors and nurses hustle about with smiles across

each face.

This is far from the rundown, ill-kept place that the words “community

clinic” conjure up.

Danielle Lucas, 22, is 4 1/2 months pregnant. She works but doesn’t have

medical insurance. The Westminster resident is hoping to get Medi-Cal

soon.

Before finding the Huntington Beach Community Clinic, Lucas went to

another clinic for her pregnancy test. She wasn’t pleased with the

environment.

“It wasn’t as friendly,” she said. “Here, it’s comfortable, clean,

well-taken care of. For community clinics, you kind of get leery of that

stuff.”

The exam rooms here see about 100 patients a day, about 13,000 patients a

year. They listen to the cries of a colicky newborn or a toddler getting

shots. They hear the diabetic woman list all her medications to her

doctor and the heartbeat of an unborn baby beating inside a pregnant

mother.

Many of the patients at the clinic are not insured. Statistics show 90%

of the patients are women and children, and many of these women are

divorced. Patients are charged on a sliding scale.

The clinic, which has been open for 30 years, is funded through a

combination of grant money, private donations and fund-raising. The

Huntington Beach Community Clinic Support Group helps by holding a

Duck-A-Thon each May. Last year, the event raised $75,000 in net profit.

The staff is a young and energetic mix of interns, resident doctors,

medical assistants and nurses. Several licensed doctors come in

part-time. Many speak Spanish or have picked it up over the years to

better communicate with the large Spanish-speaking segment of the patient

population.

The staff tries to connect patients with programs that provide assistance

for medical care and to help parents apply for the Healthy Families

program for their children, said Jackie Cherewick, the clinic’s chief

executive.

The clinic offers mental health services in addition to the general

medicine and prenatal care.

While many clinics don’t serve mental health patients, the Huntington

Beach Community Clinic integrates mental with medical health, which

results in better care for patients. The staff offers counseling,

educational classes and outreach programs.

Even when they need to refer patients to other doctors, the staff doesn’t

forget about their clients.

“We stay in touch with cards to let them know [we] care. Some are cards

just to say hi,” said Deborah Buntin, a registered nurse.

The clinic is nestled in a corner off of Beach Boulevard in a two-story

building that they are quickly outgrowing. They’ve been at the current

building for two years and were lucky enough to lease an attractive

building with marble floors.

“The outside now matches the care we’re giving on the inside,” Cherewick

said.

Patients notice the welcome doors.

Selina Thompson, 22, started coming in for prenatal care when she learned

she was pregnant eight months ago.

“The atmosphere is different,” said Sean Manning, Thompson’s boyfriend.

“Other [clinics] are cramped, noisy and unorganized.”

Thompson said she appreciates the advice that staff has provided on how

to apply for Medi-Cal.

The Huntington Beach couple plan to continue seeking care at the clinic

for their baby after he is born.

“You get just as good care as if you had insurance,” Thompson said.