Idaho Spotlight

Healthy Community Project in Garden City, Idaho

For many years, low-income residents of Garden City, Idaho had limited access to free or low-cost medical care. Garden City Community Clinic (GCCC) was the community’s only safety net provider, yet it was open just two evenings a week. This changed with a $129,408 grant from The Regence Foundation, which helped to significantly expand primary medical care options for the area’s most vulnerable individuals.

Funding allowed a collaborative venture between GCCC and the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho (FMRI) to be established. As the largest medical provider for the uninsured and underinsured population in Ada County and Idaho’s largest single primary care Medicaid provider, FMRI had the capacity to expand into Garden City. However, it lacked clinic space—a space GCCC had. By joining together and deploying the grant, FMRI can support a physician assistant and nursing staff during the day in the GCCC space. It also subcontracts part of the grant to the clinic for rent and administrative costs. This expanded use of the facility helps subsidize GCCC’s free services in the evenings. The partnership has also allowed medical students to gain clinical experience in a vital family practice setting.