Central Health is opening its new Hornsby Bend Health & Wellness Center on Saturday, the first of several clinics the local health district will soon launch in Eastern Travis County.
The new health center is located in the Austins' Colony neighborhood of Hornsby Bend, around 25 minutes outside of Central Austin. It will provide primary care and behavioral health services to people enrolled in Central Health’s Medical Access Program, which serves low-income residents who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. The facility will also be a community gathering and education space with an outdoor play area for neighborhood kids.
“Up until now, the 10,000 or so people who live in and around Hornsby Bend had to travel a minimum of 12 miles by road to get to any doctor, which a lot of people with low incomes and chronic conditions simply can’t manage,” Mike Clark-Madison, a communications representative for Central Health, said. “According to census data, about 2,500 people in and around Hornsby Bend lack health insurance. So it’s a community where a center [like this one] will make a huge difference.”
During construction, services have been provided out of a temporary site off Webberville Road. On Saturday, services will begin their transition to the permanent building at 3700 Gilbert Road, which Central Health calls “a right-sized, purpose-built medical facility and resource center developed with guidance from the Hornsby Bend community.”
The new health center will hold a grand opening Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Medical staff will offer flu vaccines at the event, along with a Teddy Bear Clinic for kids who bring their stuffed animals. There will also be live music and dance performances by students from Hornsby Bend’s Gilbert Elementary School.
This clinic’s opening marks the first milestone in Central Health’s Healthcare Equity Plan, a seven-year undertaking to add clinics and services the organization believes will close critical gaps in local health care availability.
Two additional clinics detailed in the Healthcare Equity Plan are expected to open this year. The new Del Valle Health & Wellness Center will offer similar services to the Hornsby Bend location. Central Health is also renovating the historic Rosewood-Zaragosa health center in East Austin and will soon open the Rosewood-Zaragosa Specialty Care Clinic, which Central Health hopes will reduce long wait times many MAP members face for specialty care. It will offer cardiology, podiatry, gastroenterology, neurology, nephrology and pulmonology services.
