Public Health Recession 

Clinic shutdowns hit tiny towns hard

Partner: 
Sacramento Bee
Summary: 

Since the town’s clinic closed last year, residents of tiny Doyle, California, now have to travel more than 40 miles one-way to see a doctor. We look at health access in California’s far north, where the lagging economy has forced six rural clinics to close their doors and left the poor and elderly increasingly shut out from health care.

Impact Summary: 

Since the town’s clinic closed last year, residents of tiny Doyle, California, now have to travel more than 40 miles one-way to see a doctor. We look at health access in California’s far north, where the lagging economy has forced six rural clinics to close their doors and left the poor and elderly increasingly shut out from health care.

Results
Two tiny towns struggle after their clinics close
Jocelyn Wiener | September 6, 2010
DOYLE – Just before the turnoff into this tiny community, near the shuttered Burger Barn, a sign announcing Doyle's existence also hints at its fade toward oblivion. Underneath the name of the local clinic, Doyle Family Practice, someone has added the words: "Temporarily closed." Last summer, state budget cuts forced the Doyle clinic – along with five other rural health or dental clinics in far Northern California – to close. Since then, the isolated stretch of highway connecting this high desert community in Lassen County to Susanville, 42 miles northwest, and Reno, 46 miles southeast, has become a major obstacle for people in need of health care.
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Results
A few rural clinics are resolved to stay open
Jocelyn Wiener | September 6, 2010
Last summer, the leadership of Anderson Valley Health Center received alarming news. Under the new state budget, they were to lose $350,000 – nearly a third of their revenue. After 33 years, they were confronted with a question: How would they stay open? "We immediately decided, 'We're going to make this work,' " said Dr. Mark Apfel, the clinic's longtime medical director. "Closing wasn't an option. It would be a devastating blow to the community." If there are solutions available to clinics grappling with burgeoning need and dwindling finances, they may resemble the efforts taken by this clinic in rural Mendocino County last year.
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