Construction of a new health clinic for low income residents of Cottage Grove will start soon. Officials celebrated the news at a ceremony Wednesday.
The clinic will be in a renovated wing of Lane Community College’s Cottage Grove campus. Federal, state and local officials gathered outside the building and noted that the final piece of funding came from a $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Health Care grant. A previous $1.5 million federal appropriation had already been secured.
The facility will offer medical and dental care, primarily to people on Medicaid and Medicare. It's expected to serve up to 5,000 patients a year, many of whom currently travel to Eugene for medical services, or who don't have a primary care provider at all.
"The people of south Lane deserve to have the highest quality of healthcare," said Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch, whose district includes Cottage Grove. "And access to healthcare for our entire community directly results in improvements for everybody in the community, regardless of whether they are the ones who are accessing the healthcare directly.”
LCC students will be instrumental in delivering medical care to patients at the clinic, said officials, who touted the arrangement as among the benefits of the project.
The facility "will provide internships, clinical practice and on-the-job training opportunities in an active clinic, and will provide stackable credential opportunities to move an individual up the career ladder," said LCC president Stephanie Bulger.
“We have to think about how we’re going to deliver education and workforce training to build our healthcare workforce," added U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Springfield. "And this is the kind of solution, where people can earn while they learn, through our community college system with local support, to meet a need, regardless of anyone’s ability to pay.”
The clinic is expected to open "mid to late 2024," according to the Lane County Health and Human Services, which will operate the facility.
