Clinics accept STD patients
Published 9:42 pm Friday, April 2, 2010
Two area nonprofit clinics have agreed to begin treating low-income patients with sexually transmitted diseases, helping fill a gap created when the Snohomish Health District closed its clinic for those patients last year.
The Community Health Center of Snohomish County and Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic will begin providing services to patients referred to them by the Snohomish Health District, perhaps as soon as the end of this month.
The public health agency was forced to shut down its STD clinic last year, one of many steps it took to cut its budget.
However, the health district said it had set aside $50,000 in state funds to help ensure low-income patients with STDs could continue to get medical care, said Tim McDonald, director of health district’s community disease division.
The health district asked a number of area clinics if they would be willing to diagnose and treat these patients for a fee of $100.
“I’m absolutely elated that the Community Health Center of Snohomish County and Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic are willing to provide this very important service,” McDonald said.
The clinics will diagnose patients with the two of the most common infections: gonorrhea and chlamydia.
Patients will be referred by health district employees, who continue to conduct investigations of sexually transmitted diseases and notify partners of potential exposures.
When an investigator identifies someone who has a sexually transmitted disease and cannot afford to pay for diagnosis and treatment, the patient will be given a voucher to be treated, McDonald said.
The state-funded voucher program will pay for about 400 patients to be treated this year.
The Community Health Center of Snohomish County has two clinics in Everett and one in Lynnwood. Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic is near Everett Community College.
The health district will continue testing, counseling and treatment for syphilis because it is a disease that needs infectious disease specialists to help treat these patients, McDonald said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
For more information
For information on sexually transmitted diseases or the new voucher program, call the Snohomish Health District at 425-339-5298.
