After almost 17 years of offering families primary and secondary medical care, the Hays CISD Wellness Encouraged through Lifelong Learning (WELL) clinic is closing its doors on Jan. 18, 2018.
Dr. Ann Dixon, Hays CISD interim superintendent, said CommuniCare, which operates the facility located at Simon Middle School, gave a required 90-day notice to Hays CISD in October that they would be discontinuing services.
Dixon said the reason behind the discontinuation of services from CommuniCare was due to financial losses on their part over the last two years of running the clinic. Dixon said CommuniCare incurred a $200,000 loss.
Dixon said CommuniCare would be closing other clinics in neighboring San Marcos and San Antonio due to the more widely available healthcare facilities and greater medical competition in the area.
“Parents have more options now ... There was a time when our parents relied on us for their healthcare, but now they don’t have to.” Dr. Ann Dixon, former Hays CISD interim superintendent
“Parents have more options now,” Dixon said. “There was a time when our parents relied on us for their healthcare, but now they don’t have to,” Dixon said.
Hays CISD’s WELL clinic has been in operation as a portable clinic at various campuses from 2000 to 2010. Then in 2011, the district got a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources to construct the clinic.
Dixon said the grant was for $500,000 to build a 3,395 square foot health clinic adjacent to Simon.
Until 2015, the WELL clinic was operated by the district with a voluntary medical director.
Then in 2015 CommuniCare partnered with Hays CISD to provide medical services to patients at the WELL clinic.
Dixon said they are looking into getting a new healthcare partner to come in and operate the WELL clinic but if they don’t find one, the clinic may have to close.
“We will continue to explore any options we have available for that building, we just have not found an ongoing partner,” Dixon said.
Board member Willie Tenorio asked Dixon about the responsibility of notifying the existing patients of the WELL clinic.
Dixon said CommuniCare had the responsibility of contacting patients and the process was already underway.
