The popularity of University Hospital’s Hispanic clinic at the U Hospitals and Clinics’ Redwood Health Center is forcing the center to recruit more staff after only a month of operation.
Designed as an all-native Spanish-speaking clinic to meet the needs of Hispanics in the community, the clinic is bringing in patients from all over the valley, said both Julie Day, medical director for the Redwood Center and Enrique Baires, clinic physician.
U Hospitals and Clinics has always had Spanish-speaking staff, but native speakers were sought for the clinic so patients would feel comfortable culturally as well as linguistically.
Physician Baires is originally from El Salvador and said he has always been interested with working with this population in Utah.
Clinic Nurse Maggie Lora’s family in the Bronx, New York is from Puerto Rico.
“I’m so happy with my patients and the doctor. The doctor is so beautiful with the patients,” Lora said.
“Patient response has been extremely positive. They appreciate having the cultural connectedness, along with the ability to communicate with them,” Day said.
After opening Aug. 2, the clinic started off slow with only two or three patients, Lora said. But with 15 to 20 coming in every day, Baires and Lora will soon have more patients than they can handle. Their schedule only allows them to see up to 25 patients a day, and 24 came in Tuesday after the three-day weekend for Labor Day, Baires said.
In anticipation of continuing growth, the center is currently recruiting another physician to join the clinic, Day said.
It is the hope of the Redwood Center to hire another native Spanish speaker, but if that’s not possible, they will consider non native speakers. But they will need to speak perfect Spanish, she added.