Nonprofit prepares to reopen health clinic with much-needed new services

Hunter Health is reopening one of its three clinics on Monday, and it not only features a complete renovation, it will offer much-needed new services as well.

The Brookside Clinic, at 2750 S. Roosevelt in the middle of the Planeview neighborhood, has been closed for remodeling since January.

Hunter Health received a federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant for the work.

“We’ve remodeled the entire clinic,” said Brittney Weis, director of marketing and engagement. “We basically gutted it.”

She said there will be four new dental stations, “which is a huge addition.”

Weis said dental services have been lacking in that area for some time.

There also will be a new medical procedure room for minor procedures. Weis said that’s significant since many of the clinic’s patients walk there and now won’t need to be referred to an emergency room for minor stitches and other procedures.

“It’s severe, severe poverty,” she said of the area.

Many of Brookside’s patients are Hispanic or Vietnamese.

Last year, the clinic had 7,532 visits from 2,613 patients for an average of three visits a person.

Hunter Health first started serving residents in that area at the Brookside United Methodist Church in 1998.

Members of the church helped with financial support for the 3,500-square-foot clinic when it was built in 2011.

Monday is Brookside’s official reopening, but there was a special ceremony Friday during which American Indian elder Mark Brown blessed the building.

Hunter Health’s main clinic is at Central and Grove, and it has another one at 935 N. Market. That one, which is at HumanKind Ministries, serves a large homeless population.