Grossmont Healthcare District Pays It Forward for the Uninsured

The Grossmont Healthcare District is trying to help make sure East County is covered—with or without universal health insurance.

The district board of directors recently voted to approve a $150,000 grant to Volunteers in Medicine—San Diego Inc. The grant will go toward funding diagnostic lab fees, medical supplies, X-rays and ultrasound tests for uninsured East County residents who visit the Volunteers’ El Cajon medical clinic at 1457 E. Madison Ave.

Says the group’s website:

Demographic studies of El Cajon show that 18,000 to 20,000 potentially eligible patients live within a five-mile radius of the clinic location on E. Madison Ave. Although no one with acute medical needs will be turned away, all applicants will be carefully screened by a professionally trained medical social worker. Those who do not meet the criteria of working uninsured or who are eligible for other types of assistance will be referred to the appropriate agencies. There is never a charge for services or for the medications we are able to provide.

“With the present economic conditions and increased in unemployed residents in East County, we have experienced a significant increase in demand for our services,” said Maureen Hartin, Volunteers’ chief executive officer. “We have become the medical home for many people who would have no where else to go except to the hospital emergency room.”

“We are proud to help support Volunteers in Medicine, which provides a safety net to our uninsured population in the East County,” said Debbie McElravy, district board president.

HAVE BOX, WILL RACE: The ninth annual Soap Box Derby Rally Races are rolling just around the corner. Kids 8 to 17 from Southern California, Arizona and Nevada will be racing along Junior High Drive on March 5 to 6. Organized by the La Mesa Kiwanis Club, the races start around 9:30 a.m. Interested sponsors, advertisers or entrants can email Dennis Wilkes at dwilkes@cox.net.

FINE WITH ME: There’s a reason bookstores exist—some of us wind up owing more in library fines than it would have cost to buy a book that’s now two months past deadline. Thankfully, the county library system sympathizes with our pain and features Fine Free Friday, which allows tardy borrowers to slip in and out without sirens, bells or library cops chasing after them with batons. So dig up that long overdue copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and return it to your local branch before Saturday knocks on your door with a bill for twenty bucks.