Healthcare is one of the most fickle aspects of the economy, and good healthcare has only gotten harder to find. Camarena Health, a healthcare provider that aims to put clients first, has recently moved into Los Banos with a brand new facility earlier this month and hopes to lower the stress surrounding health coverage.
Officially opening its doors on March 10, the latest facility held a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome the new addition to the community on the 27th. With its first location opening its doors in Madera in late 1980, Madera Family Health Center, as they were known then, began with a focus on both primary health care and health education.
By the mid-90s, the organization had established a women’s health center and changed its name to Camarena Health, a moniker that would stay with them to this day. The next few decades would mean nothing but growth for the client-focused health centers, and numerous facilities would pop up in and around Madera County.
Establishing 18 facilities across suburbs, cities and schools, Camarena Health was primed to move out of their native Madera County and bring their vision of personalized healthcare to the rest of the state.
The Los Banos branch of Camarena Health is just as focused on people and realistic healthcare as their forebearers, and the recent ribbon cutting ceremony was just the first step on the road to becoming a staple of the community.
Art Zaragoza, Camarena’s director of communications, has made it clear that the development of the new facility is motivated by community needs.
“With this latest facility, we hope to start breaking ground [in Los Banos] and start introducing ourselves,” Zaragoza explains. “Our goal here is to be a partner, to be community-focused and community-engaged.”
This introduction to Madera’s premier healthcare organization was spurred on mainly by the need for an accessible facility in our county: though Camarena Health has established a solid foothold in its home county, residents of Dos Palos and Los Banos were faced with having to seek health support outside their hometown.
Even with LB’s primary healthcare system, many residents with specific health needs were left with a worrying lack of specialists in the area, which is an issue that the new Camarena building is aiming to remedy. The recent grand opening is the organization’s initial attempt to, as Zaragoza says, “let the community know how we can help.”
Funding is always the first and biggest hurdle that new developments have to overcome, and this new facility is state-of-the-art in both healthcare and financing. Being funded through a relatively new program known as the New Markets Tax credit, the new Camarena Health building is one of the first facilities in Los Banos to take advantage of this new economic catalyst.
This credit aims to allocate taxes for developments meant to help communities through a highly competitive application process, and organizations and city officials can appeal directly to the state for financial assistance. Moreover, this New Markets Tax credit has the added benefit of allowing organizations and officials to identify where funding is needed most, rendering it one of the most unique funding options to enter the state in recent years.
Sitting proudly on Pacheco Boulevard, Camarena is Los Banos’ answer to a need for a wider spread of healthcare. The ribbon has been cut, and the doors have been opened, and with years of experience and a focus on people, Camarena Health begins its journey to make itself a helping hand of the community for years to come.
