Clinic for needy due for Monroe

Published 11:34 pm Monday, September 10, 2007

MONROE — Sea Mar Community Health Centers has announced plans to open a $1.5 million office in Monroe that will provide medical, dental and mental health services to the Skykomish Valley.

Although the nonprofit organization provides services to anyone, it targets low-income children and adults who have trouble getting access to health care — such as those without health insurance — and Medicare and Medicaid patients. These patients now often end up at hospital emergency rooms for treatment.

Sea Mar is searching for up to 7,000 square feet of office space to house its offices, said Mary Bartolo, deputy director. If a deal is signed soon, the clinic could be open by the end of the year, she said.

Sea Mar currently operates mental health and drug-and-alcohol programs at 909 W. Main St. in Monroe. The organization hopes to find enough space to offer mental health, drug-and-alcohol, dental, and medical services at one site, she said.

The medical and dental clinics are expected to serve about 4,300 patients, Bartolo said.

The medical office would open with one family practice doctor but would eventually have three physicians and a physician assistant or nurse practitioner, she said.

The dental office would open with one provider but would eventually expand to a two-person office.

“I’m absolutely thrilled this is happening,” said Dr. Mark Raney of Sky Valley Family Medicine Clinic in Sultan. “It definitely will fill a need and help deliver services to people that the current system is struggling to serve.”

Sea Mar’s current medical offices stretch from Bellingham south to Vancouver. Its one medical office in Snohomish County is in Marysville.

Hospital and other community leaders have been working for about five years to bring a nonprofit medical clinic to the Skykomish Valley, said Mark Judy, chief executive of Valley General Hospital in Monroe.

There’s a huge need among Snohomish County’s Medicare, Medicaid and uninsured patients, and the new clinic could help, Judy said.

One of the advantages of having Sea Mar open a clinic in Monroe is Sea Mar’s “strong orientation and cultural sensitivity” to the needs of Spanish-speaking patients, he said.

The area’s growing diversity is reflected in the number of women giving birth at Monroe’s hospital who identify themselves as being Latina or Hispanic. About half the moms belong to one of these ethnic groups, Judy said.

In the Monroe School District, about 12 percent of the students are Hispanic, he said. That number is expected to grow to about 27 percent by 2011.

These trends show how fast the area’s population is changing, Judy said. “The hospital and other medical care providers need to change to meet those needs.”

Although there are two nonprofit medical clinics in Everett, Raney said they’re “just too far away for people with transportation issues.”

Sea Mar’s new clinic will also serve patients from Snoqualmie Valley, he said.

“This is a great thing for the whole valley,” Raney said.

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.