La Clinica

July 10, 2002

Mr. Bruce Croskey
Los Medanos Community Hospital District
P.O. Box8698
Pittsburg, CA 94565-8698Dear Mr. Croskey:

Thank you for the generous support that Los Medanos Community Hospital District has given to La Clinica de la Raza - Fruitvale Health Project, Inc. (La Clinica) for the purchase of two new dental chairs.

La Clinica's Dental and Medical Clinics (La Clinica Pittsburg) opened in May 1999 to address the need for linguistically and culturally accessible medical and dental services for the medically underserved population in eastern Contra Costa County. The clinics' target population are monolingual Spanish speakers and 14% of patients seen at the clinic are living below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty level. La Clinica Pittsburg offers low cost, high quality dental care services to low income, publicly insured and uninsured individuals and families in eastern Contra Costa County. Upon the clinic's opening, there were only two functioning dental chairs which limited capacity and services for the clinic's target population. The lack of dental chairs impacted the efficiency of care and patient flow.

With the addition of two dental chairs, the clinic now sees about 240 patients per month, compared to 160 during the time the funding was requested. The addition of two new dental chairs yielded a 60% increase in patient visits. The addition further enhanced La Clinica Pittsburgh capacity to provide much needed dental service to a population that has limited access to oral health care. More importantly, La Clinica Pittsburg is committed to delivering dental services in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner, which enables its target population to better understand the benefits of accessing these critical services.

Again, we thank you and look forward to your continued support.

Sincerely,
Anita Addison
Planning and Development Director