Central Valley Indian Health breaks ground on expanded Clovis clinic

Native patients in Fresno, Madera and Kings counties stood to gain the most from Central Valley Indian Health’s Clovis expansion: more care in one place, fewer referrals and less back-and-forth for services such as optometry and physical therapy that are not fully available at the current clinic.

Central Valley Indian Health broke ground Wednesday at its site near Herndon and Temperance, where it already provides primary medical care, dental care and eyeglasses. The new building is meant to bring more services under one roof, especially full optometry and physical therapy, so families do not have to leave the clinic for pieces of their care. The project is also meant to strengthen continuity for patients who need follow-up visits, exams and treatment plans coordinated in one location.

Julie Ramsey said the point of the expansion is to keep more services inside the clinic. “Anything that we can bring in-house to our clinic to provide services directly, versus referring them out, increases access for our patients,” she said. The new building will sit directly across Herndon Avenue from Clovis Community Medical Center and will be a 19,000-square-foot, single-story structure with a future 5,000-square-foot building pad, according to Quiring.

The expansion builds on a system that has served the Central Valley for decades. Central Valley Indian Health was established in May 1971 as a P.L. 93-638 program contracting with the Indian Health Service, with a mission to improve the quality and quantity of health care services for American Indian people in Fresno, Madera and Kings counties. The Indian Health Service’s California profile listed 14,345 registered Indian patients and 7,466 active Indian patients at the Clovis site in fiscal year 2019, underscoring how many people depend on the clinic.

CVIH said it now operates six clinics throughout the Central Valley and offers medical, dental, optical, behavioral health and nutrition services. The Clovis clinic’s current menu of services also includes nutrition, WIC, outreach, podiatry and substance abuse counseling, showing how much of the care network already runs through the site.

The Clovis project is part of a broader regional push. In Oakhurst, CVIH said it purchased the former Rite Aid building at 49060 Road 426, at Highway 41 and Road 426, and plans to remodel it for medical, dental and mental health services. Together, the two projects point to a larger effort to keep Native care local, reduce fragmented treatment and make it easier for families across Fresno County and beyond to get consistent care without being sent from office to office.