Lane Community College’s Cottage Grove campus to be the site of the first federally qualified health center in Lane County area outside Eugene and Springfield.
The clinic, which will occupy a portion of campus, will be focused on providing healthcare to underserved populations that may not be able to access services otherwise, including individuals covered by Medicare, Medicaid and Oregon Health Plan.
“The focus is on serving a wide range of patients,” said Grant Matthews, LCC Associate Vice President for Career and Technical Education and Workforce Development. “The clinic won’t turn away clientele based on insurance coverage.”
The health center will be operated through Lane County Health and Human Services. The agency already has several federally qualified health clinics in the area, including Springfield and Eugene. Of the partnership, Matthews said, “this is a model that the county is very familiar with and it runs very well.”
This concept isn’t new, according to Matthews. “It’s probably been about 10 years since the idea was first floated,” he said. “There’s a group down in Cottage Grove called Be Your Best that has been pushing for this for a long time.”
About three years ago, the conversation was revisited and gathered momentum, Grant explained.
Be Your Best reached out to Lane Community College President Margaret Hamilton as soon as she was appointed.
“They explained that the southern part of the county has a real need for healthcare,” said President Hamilton. “One of their ideas was to partner us with the county to offer health services on our actual campus.”
They need dental health, mental health and primary care. The only way to do this is through a federally qualified health clinic.”
Matthews said that enthusiasm for the clinic has “really gotten a lot more traction this time around, to the point where the Lane County commissioners have already granted the county administrators permission to look at leasing options and move forward with plans so that they can be the fiscal agent to put it together.”
Matthews went on to explain that education partners like LCC and South Lane school districts are in the process of working together in order to utilize the proposed clinic as an education partner.
In combining the clinic with campus resources, LCC is seeking to provide educational opportunities and real-world experience for students in nursing and health sciences programs.
In terms of next steps, Matthews said they had hoped to begin construction in September 2019, with a six- to nine-month construction time before opening. Prior to COVID-19, “The County was looking at architectural plans, costs and fundraising as next steps.” Matthews will be meeting with key players on May 21 and stated that further updates will be available then.
“It could come together within one year,” President Hamilton said of the development plans.
