Protecting a community
Rebecca Holmes and others have allowed La Clinica to provide nearly 12,000 vaccinations in less than a year
Set up tables. Get laptops up and running. Make sure everybody’s got supplies.
Reroute the growing line of parents and kids waiting for COVID-19 vaccine so nobody’s out in the cold. Find more vaccine cards. And pens: Where are all the pens?
This afternoon is like many for Rebecca Holmes, La Clinica’s school nursing manager. She has been on the front lines for many months now of the organization’s COVID-19 testing and vaccination events. She has coordinated drive-up clinics, vaccinated whole families at schools, and is leading an effort now to host vaccination clinics for kids across the 17 area schools where La Clinica has health centers.
She and many other front-line employees at La Clinica have given nearly 12,000 immunizations, both to patients and other community members, in the 11 months that COVID-19 vaccinations have been available in Jackson County. The organization also has completed more than 8,500 COVID-19 tests and has screened thousands of people for symptoms in the pandemic’s nearly two years.
Some of the efforts have been quite visible—during the August 2021 COVID-19 surge in Jackson County, long lines of cars formed for La Clinica’s drive-up testing and vaccination clinic on Biddle Road and briefly slowed traffic in the area. But most happen quietly and out of wide view.
“Our approach has been to watch what’s happening in the community and to play the best role we can in meeting the need,” said CEO Brenda Johnson. “This has sometimes been a lot for us to take on. I’m extremely grateful to work with people who are so committed to our community’s health.”
For Rebecca, who logged 13,000 steps on her tracker during one recent three-hour school vaccine clinic, the work provides its own rewards. That’s especially true for the former Asante pediatric nurse when she’s working with her favorite audience, children.
“I feel like this is the next step in protection of the community,” she said. “To be able to play a role in that happening, it’s pretty awesome. I don’t know how else to put it.”
Rebecca Holmes, La Clinica's school-based nursing manager, works with Patient Service Representative Dulce Villa to set up a vaccine clinic for kids at Talent Elementary School this month. (Photos courtesy of Jim Craven)
The race against COVID continues
As the pandemic persists, so do La Clinica’s efforts to protect the community.
- COVID-19 testing is available to patients at all health centers and to other community members at school centers, the Acute Care Clinic, and the Mobile Health Center.
- COVID-19 vaccine is available to patients at all health centers and to other community members at school centers and the Mobile Health Center.
See https://laclinicahealth.org/services/medical/covid-19-vaccination/ for more detail.
Elfega Melendez: a COVID course changed with monoclonal antibodies
After his own COVID-19 vaccination at a Talent Elementary School clinic recently, Ezra Rappleye sought the same protection for his stuffed companion. School-based nurse Tamara Chambers took the request in stride. (Photo courtesy of Jim Craven)
Newest clinic welcomes community for acute needs
La Clinica’s Acute Care Clinic, which opened in March with a focus on COVID-19 screening and testing, has started offering diagnosis and treatment of other illnesses and injuries to anyone in the community with no appointments needed.
The clinic at 616 Market St., Medford, grew from La Clinica’s early pandemic efforts to screen and test people for COVID-19 safely. That continues to be vital work at the 1,500-square-foot clinic, which is designed with walk-up service windows, a waiting area that opens to the outdoors, and special ventilation to keep patients and staff safe from infectious diseases.
Now, however, the team also is seeing patients with cuts, rashes, and a variety of minor illnesses such as upset stomachs and urinary tract infections. All care is drop in, with the most severe concerns seen first when people check in.
“We see people for the acute version of whatever we would see them for in any of our health centers,” said Jillian Robinette, who manages the new clinic along with the neighboring Wellness Center. She notes that the team works to schedule follow-up visits at La Clinica health centers to connect people with regular care.
Eventually, the plan is to expand the building and bring in additional services such as sports physicals, wound care, imaging, and more.
'We literally save lives': La Clinica's heightened focus on welcoming everyone
La Clinica has always put equity high on its list of priorities. Now, with the addition of its first equity, diversity, and inclusion director, it's taking a deeper look to elevate the topic even more inside the organization and in the community.
Bryon Lambert is focusing on projects aimed at strengthening equity practices at La Clinica and beyond.
Equity isn’t a new topic for the organization, which formed more than 30 years ago to address a community need for care for primarily Latino/a/x migrant workers. But at La Clinica, like Jackson County, a lot has changed in that time. Today, about a third of all patients are Latino/a/x. About one in 10 live without homes. Agricultural workers—a broader mix of workers now—make up about one in 11 patients.
Equity puts the focus on ensuring culturally appropriate service for every one of the nearly 30,000 people who walk through La Clinica’s doors every year.
“We’ve created processes to ensure that every patient feels welcome with us,” said Alayna Schoblaske, an East Medford Dental Clinic dentist who leads a staff council on equity, diversity, and inclusion. “Bryon is deepening that work with our staff and beginning to share what we know with community partners.”
“We want a healthier community, and when La Clinica focuses on equity, we literally save lives,” said Bryon.
Bryon most recently served as the director of equity and inclusion at Seattle’s Cross Cultural Health Care program. He previously worked at La Clinica as a patient experience manager.
Interested in learning more about equity, diversity, and inclusion? La Clinica offers online training on this topic, with in-person sessions scheduled to resume in 2022. Learn more about Essential Practices of Equity and Agility, the online workshop, and Equity and Agility, the in-person program.
Get information about all the community workforce training we offer.
'I feel like my purpose is, in part, to inspire'
Because everybody loves a happy ending, we return to the story of Rhonda Capello, originally featured in our 2020 Annual Report
Since having her feet amputated in March, Rhonda Capello, a Birch Grove Health Center patient featured in La Clinica’s 2020 Annual Report as someone who benefited from virtual visit connections with her care team, has made great strides, literally.
She was fitted with prosthetic legs at Spectrum Orthotics and Prosthetics in September, a moment she recalls with joyful tears.
“When I got my legs, I put them on and stood up,” she said. “It was the first time in 20 years it didn’t hurt. My hips, my whole body, it just felt great. Standing up on my real feet was hard. I had to face so much pain.”
A champion powerlifter who injured her back when she was 14, Rhonda had undergone a lifetime of surgeries on her back, ankles, and feet. This spring, she opted for amputation to clear an infection that had spread to her bones from sores on her feet related to diabetes.
Another round of infection delayed her healing this summer, but she kept up physical therapy to maintain her strength and help fight off depression. When she first pulled on her new legs—titanium versions with stiff, heavy feet she’s given a colorful pedicure and outfitted in cute sneakers— she could barely walk a lap around the south Medford motel where she lives. Now she walks two miles, although the task leaves her sweating in the sockets and sleeves that attach her first prosthetics, which she sometimes calls her training wheels.
She’s working through a process to upgrade to prostheses that will sport a flexible ankle that will help her move over uneven surfaces and a more comfortable way to connect to her legs below the knees. They will put her one step closer to her dreams of camping and hiking to see wildflowers and visiting the beach with her grandson.
Working toward her goals, she said, isn’t just for her. “It’s for other people, too. I feel like my purpose is, in part, to inspire.”
She’s connected with other amputees and people facing amputation for mutual support. And she’s happy to share her story at La Clinica.
“I have a great team. It feels like home here,” she said.
Rhonda Capello shows the next expected model of her new feet to her primary care doctor, Family Physician Nat Fondell.
Thank you, as always, for your incredible generosity
La Clinica couldn't help the community the way it does without your kind and generous support of this work. If you are planning a year-end gift for 2021, use the first link below to find the best way to donate.
We wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons and a healthy 2022.