Health centers seek stimulus funds

NORTH BAY – The community clinics in Sonoma County need about $70 million for expansion, and officials are gearing to apply for the next round of federal stimulus funding, which will be the first competitive allocation for health centers from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Four local centers will vie for a piece of about $650 million in competitive building grants reserved for “shovel-ready” projects nationwide, which could include plans to add about six new facilities in Sonoma.

But clinic officials expect steep competition for the funds.

“Sonoma County will have a difficult time competing for this funding. It’s not just about the completeness of the application, but the need. Even though many of our centers are filled to capacity, it might not be as much as in urban centers,” said Pedro Toledo, spokesman for the Redwood Community Health Coalition, which advocates for federally qualified health centers in the North Bay.

“We just have to be much more rigorous in preparing our applications.”

Most North Bay health centers have gone through some sort of expansion recently, notably, the addition of two new sites for Marin Community Clinic, two for Southwest, one for West County and another in Windsor by Alliance. But the next application will serve specifically clinics with building plans in process, though exactly how far along is still unclear.

“We know a lot of clinics are eager to compete for those grants and how good your presentation is really is the name of the game,” said Jack Neureuter, chief executive officer for Healdsburg-based Alliance Medical Center, one of the local centers applying for the new grants.

“There are still a lot of unknowns about what exactly they are looking for, particularly what is considered ‘shovel-ready.’ Do you have to have ground? Blue prints and permits? Or just property you could bid on?”

Mr. Neureuter said the North County clinic could expand according to different scenarios involving the addition of at least one new site with the possibility of two, either building from the ground up, buying a building and renovating, or expanding and renovating a current site. He said the projects would cost between $8 million and $15 million and will depend on the acceptance or denial of the grant.

The center added a Windsor site last summer and plans are already in motion to double the number of exam rooms in that location no later than Aug. 1.

Petaluma Health Center is also among the local organizations contending for the building grants, which it would use to move to a new, greatly expanded clinic. CEO Kathryn Powell said the center is currently in negotiations to lease or buy a new building.

“If we don’t get the grant we would have to finance the building, which would be about $5 million and about $3.5 million to finish it out,” she said.

“If we get the financing we can do a bigger building or build from the ground up. This is stimulus money, so they want it to go to projects that produce jobs in construction, so it just kind of changes the approach of the new building.”

The south Sonoma clinic is also close to expanding its reach, opening a new, 3,000-square-foot west Petaluma location in August. The organization is in the process of purchasing a portable building, which will fill the need for additional capacity until it can open the new, larger location.

Southwest Community Health Center will also apply for the grant to build its new 60,000-square-foot clinic, and Sonoma Valley Community Health Center will ask for funding for a new site it has planned near Boyes Hot Springs.

In addition to the competitive grants, all California clinics will receive a portion of about $850 million in non-competitive funding, with a flat $250,000 going to each site and an additional $35 per patient up to $2.5 million. The funding is the second round of stimulus dollars to go to local clinics after about $2.1 million was awarded to North Bay sites in March.

Those grants went to Napa-based Clinic Ole, Southwest, Alliance, West Marin’s Coastal Health Alliance, Marin Community Clinics, Petaluma Health Center, West County Health Centers and Sonoma Valley Community Health Center.

A third cycle of grants will be released later this year related to the implementation, adaptation or use of electronic health records.

All of the grants are part of about $2 billion carved out specifically for federally qualified centers in the stimulus package signed in February, which is the largest single investment in the system since it was created 45 years ago.