Central Health opens long-awaited Del Valle Health Center

Last week, Central Health announced at a Travis County Commissioners Court meeting that it has finally opened its Del Valle Health Center, the long-awaited collaboration with CommUnityCare that will expand access to health care for low-income Eastern Travis County residents. The new facility has been a long time coming, with many frustrating delays – last summer Central Health had projected its opening to be December 2024, but the first patient was served on March 10.

Del Valle, which is considered a food and health care desert, has grown significantly over the past decade thanks to rising housing costs in Austin proper, and the addition of the new clinic will address gaps in services that have been affecting increasing amounts of people. Now, instead of driving into Austin to receive care, residents will have nearby adult and pediatric dentistry services, mental health and primary care, as well as a retail drive-through pharmacy, “the first of its kind in the area,” according to Central Health CEO Dr. Patrick Lee.

That’s not the only sorely needed new Central Health initiative – since June 2024, its bridge clinic at Capital Plaza has provided substance use and mental health treatment and helped enroll people in Central Health’s Medical Access Program. That fixed location is geared toward people who come in with “zero basis,” as Lee described it – “no medications, no home, no shoes, no support … and after three to eight hours in that first visit, that individual will walk out with a MAP insurance card and a primary care appointment having seen a couple specialists and hopefully a place to sleep tonight.” 

The bridge clinic is particularly relevant for people experiencing homelessness who have health conditions worsened by living outside. Lee explained that last year, during the winter storm in January 2024, he saw a homeless man who had been living in his car and had to have both legs amputated due to frostbite struggle to recover in a respite bed at the ARCH. In September, Central Health began partnering with Austin-Travis County EMS for first responders to bring people living outside during dangerous temperatures directly to the bridge clinic and not the emergency room, so that they could actually receive medication and connection to ongoing services afterward instead of being discharged from the emergency room with no options.

“Half of the referrals that come into the bridge clinic are coming from EMS,” Lee said. This January during the cold snap, he said, EMS was able to bring people to the bridge clinic overnight.

Central Health has also recently begun offering a mobile outreach component, providing services to the Eighth Street Women’s Shelter, Integral Care Diversion Center, Texas Harm Reduction Alliance and soon Foundation Communities. The goal is to bring those same MAP services – especially medication and refills – to where people who need them already are, as it’s often difficult for those in unstable housing situations to access care without a reliable mode of transportation. 

“Somebody that’s at zero in receiving care, they’re not at zero from all their many years of interactions with our public systems of jail and courts and shelters,” Commissioner Ann Howard highlighted. “It really underscores the work we’re doing around the diversion center, because it’s clear that we need to scale up this type of uber-coordinated care for people and help them not return to this expensive cycling through all these public systems.”

Looking toward the future, Central Health’s new initiatives include two full-time cardiologists, a medical weight loss program and a fund addressing food insecurity among MAP patients. This responds to requests for a mobile food pantry to serve Central Health and CommUnityCare sites, meal delivery for people with kidney disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, heart conditions, malnutrition and people experiencing homelessness. However, Central Health Board Chair Ann Kitchen warned, “we’re facing challenges because of changes at a federal level,” and told the court that the board has passed a resolution to assess the impact any funding cuts could have on “our ability to serve patients.” Howard added, “The nonprofit community is already accounting for about $89 million of potential cuts to our community – that’s a lot of people-to-people services that we could have to make up for. We’ll need to work together should these cuts really come about.”

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