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Mobile Health Center Due To Open
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A mobile health center intended for both student and community use is due to open at Riverbank High School in early March.

Basically a primary care doctor's office on wheels, the center will be provided by Golden Valley Health Centers through arrangement with the Riverbank Unified School District, the Step by Step student club at RHS and the Casa Del Rio Resource Center on the Rio Altura School campus.

The grand opening is planned for 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 5 at RHS.

Thereafter, the clinic will operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Riverbank High on Tuesdays and at Rio Altura Elementary on Fridays.

A flyer says the health center will accept Medi-Cal, Medicare and Healthy Families payments and can arrange special programs for the uninsured.

The mobile clinic is a converted former Greyhound bus, said RHS social worker Nancy Garcia, who has been working with Step by Step students to provide the much-needed service.

Four of the students briefly outlined the arrangements for the school district board at its Feb. 17 meeting, one of them commenting it was much more difficult and took much longer than anticipated to set up the service.

Garcia added the plan is to restrict morning hours to students only and later open for a third day per week.

Meanwhile in the downtown, the Valley Oak Hospital District medical clinic continues to operate in a prefabricated mobile building on land belonging to the City of Riverbank.

The city wants the space for a parking lot to serve the downtown once the downtown redevelopment project is complete, said City Manager Rich Holmer.

The clinic is only waiting for certification allowing it to provide emergency besides primary care and then will move to the Professional Medical Building at Patterson Road (Highway 108) and Jackson Avenue.

The City of Riverbank and Riverbank Unified School District originally negotiated with Oak Valley for the on-site school visits. Negotiations fell through a year ago and Golden Valley Health Centers took over the task.

Golden Valley claims more than 10 years experience in providing health care to schools and small communities.