The new Health Point Rockdale Clinic will open Monday on the campus of the former Richards Memorial Hospital, bringing with it a return to all-ages health care, medical facilities affiliated with a big-city hospital and a few familiar faces.
Rockdale’s complex health care situation continues to evolve. An application for a much-hoped-for federal grant didn’t “make the cut,” but Eric Todd, Health Point CEO, said another application is planned.
The clinic is being funded by a property tax that is, at least for now and next year, set at 6.5 cents.
SERVICES—Health Point-Rockdale (HPR) is a primary care facility with a family physician, a pediatrician and two physician assistants, both of whom previously worked at the now-closed Little River Rockdale clinic.
The new clinic is affiliated with CHI-St. Joseph’s in Bryan.
HPR will mark the return of lab services to Rockdale. “We will do labs here and the results will be available the next morning,” Todd said.
Todd said Medicare and Medicaid will be accepted. “Uninsured persons will be charged on a sliding scale based on their ability to pay,” he said.
Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Appointment number is 512-882-1070,
The new facility does not replace the current Rock-dale Medical Center, which opened in February at 602 North Main, site of the former Rockdale Medical Association Clinic.
PHYSICIANS—Todd said Dr. Miguel De La Torre will be the facility’s family practician.
“He will be here five days a week,” Todd said.
Dr. De La Torre has been practicing medicine for more than 20 years.
“He is bilingual,” Todd noted.
Dr. Jeanet Tannous, a pediatrician, will be at the new clinic three days a week, Todd said.
Medical care for those 12-and-under has not been available since the Little River clinics closed almost exactly one year ago.
Nurse-Practitioners will be Karla Woods and Kristen Gainer, both of whom previously practiced in Rockdale.
Todd said HPR will employ about 18 persons.
GRANT—Rockdale’s facility was not among the 60 receiving federal grants this fall. The Rockdale Hospital District, attempting to raise $200,000 per month in operating expenses for HPR, had hoped that revenue stream would greatly lessen the tax burden on district taxpayers.
(Actual expenses are pegged at $400,000 a month. CHI-St. Joseph’s is assuming the other $200,000 monthly expense).
Todd said 60 grants were awarded and 18 went to facilities in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“I can certainly understand that,” he said. “What I can’t understand is the way our application was scored. They did not take into account that Rockdale had lost its hospital, and affiliated clinic facilities, in November, 2018.”
“That is obviously a huge factor in the need of this community for this grant,” he said. “We are asking them to re-evaluate the needs assessment of our application and do so based on real data, the hospital’s closing.”
The second round of grants will be awarded early next year.
TAX RATE—Without the project grant money, the next big question becomes how clinic funding will be raised and what will be the effect on Rockdale taxpayers.
District directors originally said a 16.9-cent rate would be needed but later decided to use remaining resources to lower the rate to 6.5 cents, but only for this year and next year.
The hospital district has attempted to re-obtain a half-cent sales tax once collected by the district but which has gone to the Rock-dale Municipal Development District (MDD) for the past decade.
That quest has generated little visible public support.
The board has announced plans to seek an election to expand the hospital district from the city limits to those of the Rockdale ISD, spreading the tax burden over a larger base and diluting its effect on Rockdale residents.
Current tax bills, mailed earlier this month, were the first to reflect the 6.5-cent hospital district tax.
Other ideas floated by the public have included a countywide, or south Milam County, approach to funding health care.
Some members of the public have told the board they prefer an emergency room to a clinic. Board members have noted free-standing ERs don’t exist and Rock-dale’s best chance for an ER, along with more specialists and other health care upgrades, lies in using the new clinic and its affiliation with a major hospital.
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