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A Message from Bruce Hebets, Executive Director
Mission Statement
The mission of Borrego Community Health Foundation is to “become the hub of medical and related social services for the communities of Borrego Springs, Coachella Valley, Cathedral City, Julian and El Cajon and their adjoining geographic areas. The centers shall provide comprehensive affordable care and daily primary care and preventive care to all the residents regardless of the ability to pay. The centers shall strive to maintain current services and to develop additional services to meet the medical and social needs of all these communities."
History and growth
Only in recent years have the seven clinics of the Borrego Community Health Foundation emerged as a regional medical network in the inland region of San Diego and Riverside counties. Originally, a group of Borrego Springs citizens organized the foundation as a nonprofit benefit corporation when Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation bowed out of its nine-year ownership of Scripps Clinic-Borrego Springs in 1990. The 8,600-square-foot Scripps facility, built and equipped in 1982 with private donations, became known as the Borrego Medical Center.
In 2003, the medical center reached a major milestone when it became a Federally Qualified Health Center. Along with the renewable federal support came a new calling to extend comprehensive social and medical services to the surrounding desert region.
To reach those populations, the Borrego Community Health Foundation acquired fully operational clinics in Cathedral City, El Cajon, Julian, Coachella Valley and Thermal. In addition, the foundation opened a full-time pharmacy in central Borrego that dispenses medications to outlying clinics through daily messenger service.
The addition of those five clinics, anchored with headquarters at the Borrego Medical Center, has significantly boosted patient visits and revenues from MediCAL, Medicare and private insurance providers.
Today, with a staff of more than 120 providers and support personnel, the Borrego Community Health Foundation tailors primary and preventive health programs to meet the special needs of women, children, adolescents, senior citizens, immigrant farm workers, and those at risk of developing serious diseases such as diabetes. Without these and similar programs, many of the residents in this isolated desert region would have difficulty obtaining professional medical care.
Jan. 1, 1979 – Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation of La Jolla establishes a satellite clinic at the practice of local physician Dr. Floyd L. Woolcott at The Plaza in central Borrego Springs.
Feb. 3, 1981 – Groundbreaking for a new Scripps Clinic satellite clinic at the entrance of Rams Hill Country Club. Almost five acres is donated by the Di Giorgio Corporation, with the Alphonse A. Burnand Foundation underwriting costs of designing, constructing and equipping the 8,600-square-foot, $1 million facility.
March 13 and 14, 1982 – Dedication and public open house of the new clinic at 4343 Yaqui Pass Road. A community fund-raising drive generates in excess of $448,000 for equipment and furnishings for the new clinic.
1988 – Woolcott Golf Tournament is inaugurated to help support clinic operations.
Aug. 1, 1990 – Satellite clinic closes indefinitely following the unexpected resignation of its medical director due to an injury. Scripps indicates that all assets will be transferred to a successor organization.
October 1, 1990 – The Borrego Community Health Foundation incorporates as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and re-opens the Borrego Medical Center under its ownership and management.
May 1994 -- The Borrego Community Health Society incorporates as a not-for-profit organization designed to support health-care operations of the clinic through the establishment of an endowment fund. The society now contributes $300,000 annually to the medical center from interest in an endowment of approximately $6 million.
Jan. 1997 – Borrego Medical Services, a professional corporation, attempts to operate the Borrego Medical Center as a profit-making organization, but bows out at the end of the year when its one-year contract expires.
Oct. 14, 1998 – As part of an effort to stabilize financial support, the Borrego Medical Center becomes certified as a Rural Health Clinic eligible for federal grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.
September 2002 -- The Borrego Medical Center receives a $500,000 renewable grant from the Bureau of Primary Health Care, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. This grant provides funding for operation of the Borrego Medical Center as a Federally Qualified Health Center. The federal grant stipulates that the medical center assist under served populations in isolated desert area.
2005 – The Borrego Community Health Foundation acquires clinics at Coachella Valley, Thermal and Julian.
Oct. 1, 2006 – Further boosting patient visits and revenues, the foundation purchases satellite clinics at Cathedral City and El Cajon.
Dec. 12, 2006 – New pharmacy opens at Borrego Medical Center using $100,000 donation, but quickly outgrows the facility.
Oct. 2, 2007 -- Borrego Community Health Foundation opens new, larger pharmacy adjacent to the Woolcott Clinic at 655 Palm Canyon Dr., just in time to serve evacuees pouring into town from October firestorms sweeping San Diego County.