[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 3440-3441]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




IN HONOR OF THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RAVENSWOOD FAMILY HEALTH CENTER

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                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 2, 2017

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the awe-inspiring Ravenswood 
Family Health Center upon the 15th Anniversary of its founding. This 
clinic is a key provider of quality affordable, integrated healthcare 
services in the southern cities of my district. Sixteen thousand 
residents are served annually by its newly-opened, state-of-the-art 
facility located in the beautiful city of East Palo Alto.
  Ravenswood opened as South County Community Clinic in 2000 with 13 
employees. It currently has a staff of 182 full and part-time employees 
and contractors. It employs 25 full or part-time medical providers 
including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and 
nurses, six full and part-time dentists, and four behavioral health 
providers. Seventy-one percent of the clinic's patients are served in 
their native language, including Spanish and Tongan. Ninety-seven 
percent of the patients are ethnic minorities.
  The center's goal is to provide culturally-competent, sensitive 
primary and preventive care offering dignity to all patients. Often, 
the ability of a healthcare provider to do his or her job depends upon 
knowing how the patient's culture will influence the provider's 
recommendations. It is essential that the whole patient be treated with 
respect and offered dignity so that their illness or life situation can 
be competently assessed.
  The clinic offers a comprehensive scope of care including family 
practice, adult medicine, teen health, prenatal health, dentistry, 
women's health, integrated behavioral health, optometry, pharmacy, 
mammography, ultrasound, x-ray, lab, and health education. Ravenswood 
partners with Stanford's adult and children's hospitals, the San Mateo 
County Medical Center and clinics, and Sutter Health.
  As of 2014, 98 percent of the clinic's patients lived at or below 200 
percent of the federal poverty level, which for a family of four is 
about $24,300. Forty percent of its patients were uninsured, and 51 
percent had Medi-Cal coverage. Our community counts on the Ravenswood 
Family Health Center to provide care to our most vulnerable residents, 
and 39 percent of the clinic's patients were children. Five percent of 
patients were homeless and, also as of 2014, 63 of those patients were 
children. Nearly 25 percent of all East Palo Alto residents are 
patients, as are nearly 18 percent of all residents of Belle Haven.

[[Page 3441]]

  The Ravenswood Family Health Clinic provides valuable training 
opportunities for young physicians and allied professionals, and an 
opportunity to practice cutting-edge community healthcare, most notably 
chronic disease management, in part through grants from the federal 
government. While many in America struggle to pay for prescription 
drugs, the advent of the Affordable Care Act coupled with the clinic's 
discount pharmacy provides affordable prescriptions to both the insured 
and the uninsured.
  The vision of the Ravenswood Family Health Center is also one of 
stressing control over one's destiny. The vision is: Educated, engaged 
and empowered patients actively managing their health and becoming 
advocates for healthy living within their family and the community, 
inspiring others to value that good health is true wealth.
  Not surprisingly, philanthropic support of the Ravenswood Family 
Health Center has been enormous, with tens of millions donated through 
its capital and operating campaigns. Much of this philanthropic support 
is due to the outstanding staff led by the clinic's energetic and 
visionary Chief Executive Officer, Luisa Buada. From its earliest days, 
Luisa Buada has assembled a team to take on big goals.
  Starting in trailers with a limited number of services, her team has 
a stellar record of both expanding services and taking on new 
challenges. To build on the old saying, it takes a village to take care 
of the health needs of a community and Luisa has assembled her staff 
village so that no member of the clinic's community goes without access 
to needed healthcare services. The clinic's board of directors has 
steadfastly supported the dream of being more than just a community 
clinic and to instead become a beacon of hope and advanced medicine. 
Luisa, her staff, and the board have succeeded.
  Mr. Speaker, when the history of our era is written it will be noted 
that America engaged in a decade or more of debate about how best to 
provide Americans affordable, quality healthcare. What history will not 
reveal, but what is true, is that the riddle was answered at the 
Ravenswood Family Health Center. After fifteen years it is a stunning 
success. Despite its relative youth, the entire organization is very 
much an adult institution, with adult responsibilities, and an impact 
that touches and improves the lives of tens of thousands. We wish the 
staff and patients of the Ravenswood Family Health Center a long and 
healthy future.

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