The days when Oklahoma City residents avoid seeing a doctor because they cannot bridge the language divide could be nearing an end.
Integris Family Care clinic inside Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads is now open to receive patients, and the staff is fluent in Spanish and English.
Provider, staff
Ana Garcia, APRN-CNP, is nurse practitioner and primary care provider at the latest Integris clinic to open in Oklahoma City.
A graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing, Garcia is bilingual and Hispanic.
She talked with Oklahoma Gazette about the centers significance.
Whoever walks into our door, we want to provide quality care. Something thats affordable, she said of its two basic missions. We expect to provide excellence in every way possible.
It plans to welcome anyone regardless of insurance status, pay rate or type of insurance coverage. The second goal is to make sure language is not a barrier to anyone who comes in.
Nurse practitioners can deliver all levels of primary care, including writing prescriptions, so the center offers as many services as any other Integris network clinic.
Filling gaps
Marco Molina, the venues medical director, is Hispanic and bilingual and grew up seeing the gaps that can sometimes occur in medical care.
Molinas practice is in its sixth year with Integris, and he said that his patient load is near capacity because there is such a large demand for bilingual healthcare.
Molina said one of the goals at the Plaza Mayor clinic is to reach patients who have had gaps in their healthcare because of a language barrier.
The plan
This is an underserved area, and we really felt like we needed to have a presence here to the community, Jeff Cruzan, president of Integris Medical Group.
The center is part of a larger mission to improve community health within the demographics they serve, Cruzan said.
Thats a part of what this is about, he said.
Safe place
Gloria Torres said Integris Family Care Clinic inside Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads is a good alternative to emergency rooms, which is where many people in underserved populations go.
Torres, a Capitol Hill native, also is coordinator for Oklahoma City Community Colleges Capitol Hill Center and the first female Hispanic board member of Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Its a safe environment because of the reputation that Plaza Mayor has been developing that this is for the Hispanic community, Torres said.
Learn more about the Integris Family Care Clinic inside Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads at integrisok.com.
Print Headline: Getting well, Integris opens a clinic in Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads.