Second FirstMed health-care clinic for low-income Las Vegans opens
FirstMed Health and Wellness Center, a nonprofit providing discounted health care for low-income and underserved patients, opened its second clinic in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning.
The clinic, located at 400 Shadow Lane, Suite 104, will offer preventative and primary care, behavioral health service and care for youth in crisis, including sexual abuse victims.
Speakers at the opening included three prominent Nevada Democrats: Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Dina Titus, and former Attorney General and current U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.
The health center received federal funding through Reid’s work with the Health Resources and Service Administration, according to a news release.
Reid told a crowd of officials, reporters and facility staff Tuesday that he worked with numerous politicians, including Vermont’s Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, to secure funding for community health centers through the Affordable Care Act.
“This is a wonderful niche that needs to be served,” Reid said.
Titus welcomed the second FirstMed facility to the area, saying that while people typically think of rural Nevada when discussing underserved communities, urban areas also often suffer from lack of services.
“The truth of the matter is the real underserved community is based in our urban areas,” Titus said.
FirstMed has another Las Vegas clinic at 3343 S. Eastern Ave. An additional FirstMed clinic is expected to open in Southern Nevada by year’s end.
Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.
