Despite facing a $4 million dollar loss in government grant funding Mercy Health has announced it will not be closing Clinica Santa Maria located in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood in the southwest side of Grand Rapids. Doctor Hyung Kim who heads Mercy Health Saint Mary’s in Grand Rapids, says their plan is to not just continue to offer health services to uninsured and underinsured patients at the clinic but expand them.
“Our commitment there is unwavering, in fact, we are planning to invest $4 million dollars in infrastructure updates and add additional services like lab and pharmacy.”
Last fall, Mercy Health Saint Mary’s announced they would be relinquishing their grant with the federal government for five Saint Mary’s Federally Qualified Health Centers; as a result of this the Heartside clinic closed in downtown Grand Rapids.
“What it does mean is that there some reporting that we won’t need to do now and there is funding from the federal government through the health resources and services administration or HRSA, as some people call it, that Mercy Health Saint Mary’s will not be getting and so there is a funding shortfall that will occur.”
And while Doctor Kim says they are in the middle of figuring how to fill the funding gaps, this does not mean services will cease at Clinica Santa Maria. And Doctor Kristen Brown who heads Mercy Health Physicians Partners corroborates this saying the patients of that community are the primary focus.
“The demographics of the patients that we are serving in that community will not change.
Clinica Santa Maria is a resource for many undocumented underinsured or uninsured patients who call Grandville Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan home.
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News
