New Urgent Care Center Opens in Southeastern San Diego, California: Blue Shield Promise Invests $1 Million as San Ysidro Health Serves 153,000 Residents
Southeastern San Diego, in San Diego County, California — Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan announced on Oct. 26 a $1 million community investment to support San Ysidro Health's new Southeastern San Diego (SESD) Urgent Care Center at the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, which has opened to expand timely care close to home for the area's more than 153,000 residents.
The approximately 3,300-square-foot center, located within the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, was celebrated at a ribbon-cutting event held Friday featuring remarks from Assemblymember Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins, San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and San Diego City Councilmember Henry L. Foster III. Operated by San Ysidro Health, the center provides a community-based alternative to emergency room visits. In addition to treating immediate health needs, providers will connect patients to ongoing primary, preventive and supportive care, including laboratory and basic radiology services, while referring patients who require higher levels of care to nearby emergency rooms.
"Access to timely care should not depend on where someone lives. For too many years, Southeastern San Diego residents have had limited urgent care options, leading many to seek treatment in emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions," said Kristen Cerf, president and CEO of Blue Shield Promise. "Our support for San Ysidro Health's new Southeastern San Diego urgent care center will help reduce barriers to treatment and connect families to the right care at the right time, close to where they live." Assemblymember Sharp-Collins said the facility "represents opportunity for so many people to not just survive, but to thrive here within San Diego." San Ysidro Health president and CEO Kevin Mattson said: "Our Southeast San Diego families no longer need to leave the community for vital, after-hours care. We are here for the working parent with the sick child, the concerned caregiver of a senior loved one and so many other visits outside of normal operating hours."
Southeastern San Diego experiences a disproportionately high burden of chronic disease compared to other areas of the county, according to the announcement: 13% of residents live below the federal poverty level, 8% lack health insurance and 18% of households rely on SNAP/CalFresh benefits. In July 2023, Blue Shield Promise also supported the opening of Family Health Centers of San Diego's El Cajon Urgent and Cardiac Care Center to increase access for East County residents.
San Ysidro Health is a nonprofit organization founded in 1969 by seven mothers in search of medical services for their children. It now provides services to more than 162,000 lives through 50 program sites across San Diego County, including medical clinics, dental clinics, behavioral health centers, HIV centers, WIC nutrition centers, mobile medical units and school-based health centers. Blue Shield Promise, a Medi-Cal managed care organization wholly owned by Blue Shield of California, serves more than 500,000 Medi-Cal members across Los Angeles and San Diego counties and was rated 4 out of 5 in NCQA's Medicaid Health Plan Ratings for 2025.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：美国海军，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons（San Diego 市中心天际线夜景，资料图）
