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New Santa Cruz Mountain Health Center Opens in San Lorenzo Valley in January 2022
Operated by Santa Cruz Community Health, new clinic joins Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center and the East Cliff Family Health Center to provide high-quality, affordable and comprehensive health services available to all
BEN LOMOND, CA (Dec. 17, 2021) – Santa Cruz Community Health (SCCH), a leading nonprofit provider of high-quality, affordable and comprehensive health services to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, today announced it is opening a new clinic in the San Lorenzo Valley in early 2022.
Santa Cruz Mountain Health Center, located in the historic Wee Kirk Church Building in downtown Ben Lomond, will open Monday, Jan. 24, providing primary care services. Patients can call 831-427-3500 beginning Jan.10 to schedule appointments.
“We strive every day to improve the health of our patients and the community,” said Leslie Conner, Chief Executive Officer of SCCH. “We are proud and excited to bring health care services to more families and individuals in the San Lorenzo Valley.”
The clinic space previously housed Dr. Steven Leib’s family medicine practice. Dr. Leib retired in November after decades of service to patients in the SLV. Leib and his wife, Vivian, restored the former Presbyterian church in 2014 which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. SCCH is leasing the space from the Leibs.
Santa Cruz Mountain Health Center will initially operate 30 hours a week, serving approximately 2,000 patients who live in the San Lorenzo Valley area. SCCH will be staffing the clinic with three experienced physicians and a team of support staff. Moving forward, increased services will be offered at the Santa Cruz Mountain Health Center based on patient needs.
“We want to serve our patients where they are,” Conner said, noting that many current SCCH patients reside in the San Lorenzo Valley. “SLV is a remote region compared to much of Santa Cruz and it has long been under-served. Our goal is to increase access to high-quality, affordable health care for the mountain community.”
SCCH also operates the Women’s Health Center in downtown Santa Cruz and the East Cliff Family Health Center in Live Oak. The clinics offer primary care, pediatrics, prenatal care and education, mental health and substance abuse counseling, chronic disease management, health insurance enrollment, food distribution and more. In addition, clinics have been providing Covid testing and Covid vaccines during the pandemic.
SCCH also is in the process of building a new 20,000-square-clinic on Capitola Road in Live Oak. The project, in partnership with Dientes and MidPen Housing, will open in late 2022. The 57 units of affordable housing will be completed in 2023.
About Santa Cruz Community Health
Through the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center and the East Cliff Family Health Center, Santa Cruz Community Health (a Federally Qualified Health Center) provides comprehensive primary care services in English and Spanish to all ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities and sexual orientations, regardless of their ability to pay. Seeded by the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center in 1973, SCCH is has maintained a 45-year commitment to its mission: to improve the health of its patients and the community and advocate the feminist goals of social, political, and economic equality. SCCH’s health centers serve nearly 21,000 patients through a dedicated staff of medical providers, nurses, licensed clinical social workers, health educators, and administrative staff. SCCH’s clinics offer primary care, pediatrics, prenatal care and education, mental health and substance abuse counseling, chronic disease management, health insurance enrollment, food distribution, and more. Learn more at schealthcenters.org, facebook.
