Clinic with medical, dental services to open

Nevada Health Centers, which operates clinics across the state catering to the poor and uninsured, opened a new location Monday that offers medical and dental services under the same roof.

It's the first time a Nevada Health Centers facility has integrated those services in the same location, said Dr. Carl Heard, the nonprofit's chief medical officer.

"It's people that we're taking care of. Not diseases," he said.

The $1.3 million clinic at 2212 S. Eastern Ave., north of Sahara Avenue, will have family practitioners, a pediatrician, an OB/GYN and three dentists in an area that's listed as medically under-served.

Nevada Health Centers operates 14 clinics across the state, as well as a mobile mammography van, three mobile dental vans and school-based clinics.

Patients are charged on a sliding scale based on income. People with insurance are accepted, the uninsured are charged according to their ability to pay, the homeless receive free services.

"Those who come here who can afford the services, can pay for them," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "For those who can't afford it, it will be free, for all intents and purposes."

Nevada Health Centers is funded under the federal Community Health Centers Program, authorized in 1976.

"These community centers are the unsung heroes of health care all over the country," said Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas. "You're called the safety net, but I think you're much more. You're the cutting edge. You're where the rubber hits the road."

The clinic was paid for with federal grant money and donations from private foundations and donors.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.