As Families Disappear, SF Mission Health Center Consolidates

The Mission Neighborhood Health Center, the largest health clinic in the neighborhood, will close its location at Valencia Street and consolidate the services offered there to its main location on Shotwell and 16th streets and its Excelsior location.

The Valencia clinic provides pediatric and teen services, while the Excelsior and Shotwell clinics provide services for people of all ages.

Brenda Storey, the health center’s CEO, said the Valencia clinic’s patients have declined by 20 percent and  “the number of households with children is declining” in the Mission District.

By transferring to Shotwell or the Excelsior, she added, families can go to one clinic for both adult and children’s services.

The consolidation will begin in mid-February. Last week, the center posted letters about the plan to every patient, said Patty Caplan, the chief operating officer.

Information about the plan, including the current announcement on the center’s website, will also be available online.

“We plan to work individually with each family, each patient,” Storey said.

In the coming months, said Caplan, the center will counsel each patient in choosing which clinic to transfer to and record all patients’ decisions.

“For nearly fifty years, we’ve been in the Mission responding to… the community,” said Ricardo Alvarez, the center’s medical director.  In addressing the shifting demographics of the district, he said, the center continues to fulfill that role.

Employees from the Valencia Clinic will be transferred to Excelsior and Shotwell, meaning no workers will be laid off as a result of the consolidation. By honoring the needs of both employees and patients in the community, Alvarez said, the center is “maintaining that excellence.”