Southeastern San Diego residents have a new option when a non-emergency medical issue strikes after hours: a brand-new urgent care center operated by San Ysidro Health, backed by a $1 million community investment from Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan.
The center opened inside the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, a longtime community hub in Southeastern San Diego, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that drew local elected officials including Assemblymember Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins, San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, and San Diego City Councilmember Henry L. Foster III. The roughly 3,300-square-foot facility offers treatment for immediate medical needs along with lab work and basic radiology on site, plus referrals for ongoing primary and preventive care. Patients who need a higher level of care are still directed to nearby emergency rooms, but for sprains, infections, minor injuries and other common after-hours concerns, the new center gives neighbors a place to go that isn’t a hospital ER.
That matters in a part of the city that has historically gone without many urgent care options. Southeastern San Diego is home to more than 153,000 residents, and according to figures cited in the announcement, the area carries a disproportionately high burden of chronic disease compared with the rest of San Diego County, alongside higher rates of poverty and residents without health insurance. For small business owners and employees in the area, having a nearby urgent care option can mean the difference between a quick visit after a work shift and a long wait at an emergency room.
“Access to timely care should not depend on where someone lives,” said Kristen Cerf, president and CEO of Blue Shield Promise, at the opening. San Ysidro Health President and CEO Kevin Mattson added that the center means “our Southeastern San Diego families no longer need to leave the community for vital, after-hours care.”
The project is the latest example of a local nonprofit health provider and a managed care plan partnering to fill a service gap rather than waiting on a larger institution to do it. San Ysidro Health, founded in 1969, now operates more than 50 program sites across San Diego County, and this new location adds urgent, walk-in access to a part of town that has long relied on farther-away facilities for anything beyond routine checkups.
For the small businesses and families who call Southeastern San Diego home, it’s one more sign that investment is reaching neighborhoods that are often overlooked in citywide business news.
Source: Blue Shield of California
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