Donation will help complete Santa Monica renovation
By Daily Press Staff
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD The largest free clinic in the country just got a financial shot in the arm from one of the largest health care providers in the state.
Kaiser Permanente of Southern California awarded a $575,000 grant to the Venice Family Clinic (VFC) on Monday, boosting the center’s efforts to make health care accessible to the county’s uninsured residents.
More than half of the grant — roughly $312,000 — will go toward funding the completion of the expansion and renovation project at the Venice Family Clinic Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center on Pico Boulevard, one of the seven VFC locations on the Westside, and at 35,000 square feet, is the largest.
The Santa Monica clinic has under-gone renovation the past few years, a process that has involved relocation of air conditioning pumps, carpet and vinyl replacement and new signage. The $4.5 million construction project is expected to be completed in the next nine months, according to Liz Forer, the chief executive officer of the clinic.
The grant will also help complete construction projects at the Robert Levine Family Health Center on Venice Boulevard and the Irma Colen Administration Building on Rose Avenue.
Approximately $40,000 of the grant will help pay for a full-time staff physician who will rotate among the seven centers and another $20,000 will be used to streamline various procedures for enrolling eligible patients in public health insurance programs.
The VFC and Kaiser Permanente have a long-standing relationship, dating back to 1971. During the past 37 years the clinic has received more than $1 million in grants from Kaiser, not including the most recent donation.
“This means we’re able to essentially keep everything running day in and day out so we can provide care to the 400 people we serve each day,” Forer said on Tuesday.
The clinic serves more than 22,000 low-income and uninsured patients every year, making it the largest free clinic in the country. The clinic, which is run by more than 1,800 volunteers, approximately 427 of which are physicians, was co-founded in 1970 by Philip Rossman and Mayer Davidson.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 13, 2008. Read the original PDF.