Dignity Health and Shasta Community Health Center Sign Letter of Interest

Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Redding and Shasta Community Health Center have agreed to a "Letter of Interest" which will explore a transition of the Mercy Maternity Clinic from Dignity Health to Shasta Community Health Center.

REDDING, Calif. – April 26, 2018 ― Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Redding and Shasta Community Health Center have agreed to a “Letter of Interest” which will explore a transition of the Mercy Maternity Clinic from Dignity Health to Shasta Community Health Center.

The Mercy Maternity Clinic, located in Redding and currently owned and operated by Dignity Health, has cared for the community’s underserved high-risk obstetrics patients with prenatal care and education. For more than 30 years, the clinic has provided critical access to resources patients may not otherwise have had access:

• Obstetricians and Perinatologists who oversee high-risk maternity care
• Nurse practitioners who help guide patients both during and after pregnancy
• Access to mental health care, social services, lab, imaging, diabetes care and dietary support
• Lactation support to help ensure success in the days and weeks following delivery
• A number of educational classes to provide guidance both during and after pregnancy

Shasta Community Health Center currently serves the broader outpatient clinic health care needs of the community’s underserved populations. This transition, should it be finalized, would maintain the same core services that exist today while enhancing the coordination of care for patients.

“Dignity Health and Shasta Community Health Center share a mission and commitment to serve all, including our community’s most vulnerable,” said Todd Smith, president of Mercy Medical Center Redding. “We’re proud of the patient centered care we’ve provided women and their families over the last 30 years, and look forward to ensuring that the health needs of our community continue to be met.”

In the months ahead, the two non-profit organizations will be engaging in an exploratory and values-based discernment process to determine if a transition of the program is feasible while ensuring that the Mercy Maternity Clinic’s current provision of care will be maintained.

About Dignity Health North State

Mercy Medical Center Redding, St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff, and Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta are Dignity Health North State hospitals sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn. The hospitals are passionate about patient care, committed to community outreach, advocates for the underserved, and dedicated to delivering quality, affordable health services to those in need. All three hospitals have been honored with numerous awards. Mercy Medical Center Redding has received National Research Corporation’s Consumer Choice Award for eight consecutive years and the Healthgrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for three consecutive years. St. Elizabeth Community Hospital received a Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospital in the Nation for seven consecutive years – an honor no other California hospital of its size has achieved. Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta has been recognized as a Top 100 Critical Access hospital in the Nation by the National Rural Health Association. The hospitals also offer a broad array of outpatient services and the senior services of Connected Living.  Visit mercy.org to learn more.

About Shasta Community Health Center

Shasta Community Health Center (SCHC) was established in 1985 following the closure of the Shasta County Hospital. SCHC’s purpose and mission has always been to ensure access to high quality primary health care, that includes oral health, mental health, homeless outreach, HIV care, telemedicine and other specialty care services,  to the otherwise underserved and/or special needs populations of Shasta County. SCHC also sponsors its own Family Practice Residency Program working in concert with Mercy-Redding’s program and a Nurse Practitioner-Physician Assistant Post-Graduate Fellowship program. Shasta Community Health Center has primary care sites in Anderson, Shasta Lake City, Happy Valley and a Dental Clinic in downtown Redding, in the Shasta College Health Sciences Building. Shasta Community Health Center is an independent non-profit, 501 (c) 3 organization that is State licensed and was designated in 1996 as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) under the Bureau of Primary Care of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Federal Government. SCHC’s Board is made up of a majority of Consumers members of its health care services thereby ensuring transparency, local accountability and significant local control. Most recently SCHC had an onsite review by HRSA to determine if SCHC was meeting all quality, access, and compliance requirements expected of FQHCs around the country. In doing so, it received a perfect score on its review, placing it in the top 1% of all 2,000 FQHCs in the country. Shasta Community Health Center has a reputation as an outpatient medical innovator, particularly as it relates to quality of care and the use of technology in the service to our 40,000 mostly low income and special needs patients in our practice.