EVERETT — A new Sea Mar Community Health Centers medical facility has opened in the Silver Lake area of south Everett to serve low-income families, joining Sea Mar’s two other medical clinics in Marysville and Monroe.
“We felt this was an underserved area for Sea Mar services and that it’s a good fit for our clients,” said clinic manager Antonio Salazar. “Patients have been going to our northern clinics and the closest Sea Mar (medical) facility to the south is in Seattle’s South Park area. We’ve been very busy already since we opened Aug. 6.”
Elsewhere in Snohomish County, Sea Mar offers chemical dependency and mental health counseling services in its behavioral health clinics at 5007 Claremont Way, Everett; 19707 44th Ave. W., Suite 101, Lynnwood; and 14090 Fryeland Blvd. SE, Suite 347, Monroe. Its Marysville medical clinic is located at 9710 State Ave. Its Monroe medical clinic is located at 17707 W. Main St.
“The Silver Lake area is ideal since there is a growing population around the new clinic, many of the clinic’s potential patients already shop at the Winco grocery across the street and because Pregnancy Aid of Snohomish County’s Silver Lake WIC office is on another corner, providing benefits of the federal Women, Infant and Children (WIC) nutritional food program for low-income families,” said clinic director Dr. Jose Mata.
Presently there are two full-time family practice physicians at the new Sea Mar clinic, including one prenatal care provider. Salazar said he expects the medical staff to grow to five providers in the near future. Sea Mar, a Washington state nonprofit corporation, bought the building and remodeled it for patient services.
Sea Mar has its eyes on a nearby vacant lot on which to build a low-cost pharmacy in the future, Salazar said.
Sea Mar clinics are open to anyone. Services are based on a sliding-fee scale for those who can afford medical care, but it’s primarily used by low-income patients with limited insurance coverage or none at all, he said.
“Usually it takes time for people to begin coming in to a new clinic but this clinic has been much busier much faster than our other new ones,” Salazar said.
Mata said maternity support services at the site include a full-time nurse, health education and lab services.
Sea Mar Community Health Centers was established in 1978 to provide quality health care services to low-income patients. Today it has approximately 70 facilities in Western Washington between Vancouver and Bellingham that offer medical, dental and behavioral health care services, in-patient care and long-term care.
For more information, go to www.seamarchc.org, go to 1920 100th St. SE, Building B, Everett, or call 425-312-0202. The clinic is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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