Bon Secours opening new South Side health clinic

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Bon Secours is opening a new community health clinic in South Side to serve uninsured children and adults, although new nonprofits already operate similar clinics nearby.

The grand opening for the new Manchester clinic is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 23, at 2301 Everett St. on the grounds of the CARITAS Center for Healthy Living, which, among other things, provides shelter and addiction treatment services for women.

According to Bon Secours, the new medical operation will target a population that has been served for nearly 40 years by the Crossover Healthcare Ministry operation located a few blocks away at 108 Cowardin Ave.

Separately, the Capital Area Health Network, which owns the Manchester Medical Building, 101 Cowardin Ave., for years has operated a low-cost primary care operation in the building and also leases office pace to community physicians.

Bon Secours spokeswoman Jenna Green said the new clinic would work “very collaboratively with the other safety net clinics. We only serve the uninsured. We do not receive any patients with Medicaid and Medicare; we send such patients to the other clinics.”

She noted the clinic would serve the women at the CARITAS location, but would mostly focus on augmenting the care it now provides through the Bon Secours Care-A-Van program, which has traveled the community for nearly 30 years to serve the uninsured.

The Catholic health care system announced last June plans to renovate the two story, 8,000-square-foot space that is attached to the CARITAS building.

Ms. Green said the clinic will serve as the first permanent home base for the