Virginia Garcia expands with grant

Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center was recently awarded a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to increase services to migrant and seasonal farm workers.

The center, with clinics in Cornelius, Hillsboro, Beaverton and McMinnville, is in its 31st year of providing health care to low income and uninsured Washington and Yamhill County residents, said Chris Shine, a Virginia Garcia spokesman.

Migrant and seasonal farm workers face some of the greatest barriers to accessing care of any of the members of the community, said Gil Munoz, Virginia Garcia's chief executive officer. "Practically all are best served in a language other than English and less than a quarter have insurance.

"The median income for migrant and seasonal farm workers is $6,250 compared to $42,000 for U.S. workers overall. Farm worker housing tends to group in rural areas away from services and public transportation.

"The combination of obstacles results in a life expectancy for migrant farm workers far below the national average.

"The staff and board of Virginia Garcia have always been motivated by a deep dedication to ensuring that migrant and seasonal farm workers have access to health care. With this grant, we make a renewed commitment to the founding principles that have guided us for the past three decades."

More than 23,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers and their family members pass through Washington and Yamhill counties each year, he added. They harvest seasonal berries and other agricultural products.

With the additional funds just awarded, Virginia Garcia will double to 6,000 the number of migrant and seasonal farm workers to whom it can provide health services each year.

The project will be based at Virginia Garcia's new clinic in the Pacific University Health Professions Campus in Hillsboro. Three new doctors, six medical assistants, three nurses and two outreach workers will be added.

"Even though programs like Virginia Garcia have aggressively worked to provide services to the most vulnerable in our community, the simple fact is that more remains to be done," said Alberto Moreno, Migrant Health Coordinator for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

"Oregon still is an agricultural state. This grant gives Virginia Garcia significant resources to do what we all know is right: provide basic health care to the agricultural workers who are providing us services day in and day out in our community."

The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $10 million nationally to help 29 health centers serve more migrant and seasonal farm workers and people who are homeless. The grants support President Bush's multi-year initiative to expand the health center system and strengthen the nation's health care safety net.

Launched in 2002, the goal of the president's initiative is to increase access to health care by creating new health centers or expanding services at existing sites in 1,200 communities. With these grants, HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration will have funded about 900 new or expanded health center sites under the initiative.

The nation's 3,800 health center sites are expected to serve an estimated 14.6 million patients in 2006. That number represents a sharp increase from the 10.3 million patients who received care at health centers in 2001, the year before the president's initiative began.

"Since 1975, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center has worked toward the vision that no one in Washington and Yamhill counties lacks basic health care," Shine said. "The clinic was founded to honor the life and death of 6-year-old Virginia Garcia, who sustained a treatable foot wound while working in the fields near North Plains with her migrant farm worker parents.

"Although attempts were made to treat her, the unavailability of cultural, economic and language-appropriate medical services ultimately led to her death. In 2005, the center provided primary health care, prenatal and obstetric care, dental services, and health education to 25,000 individuals. Despite this tremendous success, we still turn away as many as 40 patients a day, and an additional 105,000 low-income and/or uninsured Washington and Yamhill residents need our services."

Other Oregon awards included Community Health Centers of Lane County, La Clinica del Carino in Hood River and La Clinica del Valle in Medford.