Open Door Community Health Centers
Every day, Vesper Society links arms with leaders who are working to improve the health of their communities. In the face of overwhelming urbanization, Vesper Society cares about what happens in rural areas and is proud to support Open Door Community Health Centers new facility in Fortuna.
Open Door brings a proven model of sustainable healthcare, opportunity, and access to healthcare to the Eel River Valley, a picturesque community in the southern part of rural Humboldt County, California. Forty-seven years after opening its first clinic, Open Door now has 13 health centers and three mobile vans and employs over 650 people. Many of the natural resource-based businesses in the Eel River Valley—the cornerstone of its economy—have closed. As a result, professionals, including medical providers, have relocated to find employment in urban areas. Healthcare access has become a real challenge for the community with limited options, facilities located far from home, and specialty services like dental and behavioral health nearly impossible to find locally.
Open Door provides a primary care family doctor to more than one-third of the county’s population. And Open Door’s focus on the continuum of care, from illness prevention and health maintenance to disease management and treatment, improves patient and community health and attracts providers to the area.
With continued support from Vesper Society and hundreds of individual community members, businesses, and foundations, in 2018 Open Door opened its new 32,000 square foot community health, dental, and behavioral health center in Fortuna. The new facility offers team-based, integrated comprehensive services, including telemedicine. When fully staffed, the clinic will be able to accommodate up to 180 patients per day.
After nearly five years of planning and construction, the new, state-of-the-art medical facility has helped recruit and retain healthcare providers and has been a boost to the overall quality of life in the area. Open Door is proof that a community can work together to bring about lasting change.