Medical services will continue uninterrupted during MayView Ravenswood transition

SAN JOSE – Santa Clara County will provide five monthly payments of $125,000, totaling $625,000, to MayView Community Health Center during its transition to merge with Ravenswood Family Health Center. The action follows a 5-0 vote by the Board of Supervisors earlier today.

The funds represent the County’s effort to ensure that over 9,000 mostly low income patients will continue to receive top quality health care every day without interruption to services. The funding also ensures that if Ravenswood is unable for any reason to complete the merger, then the County of Santa Clara would have the ability to step in, acquire MayView, and continue to provide services. 

“MayView has been an invaluable partner in the North County for almost half a century,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian. “And we are so excited that Ravenswood will continue to carry the torch that MayView lit 47 years ago.” 

MayView was founded in July of 1972 in Palo Alto. MayView is one of the nation's oldest nonprofit health care providers. They offer primary care, behavioral counseling, and addiction assistance with doctors and nurses that are fluent in over 15 different languages.

Ravenswood Family Health Center will acquire all three MayView sites – Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Mountain View – and will be incorporating MayView’s services and employees once the merger is complete in April of 2020. Once the merger is complete Ravenswood will now offer services to 27,000 residents, 10,000 of whom will be Santa Clara County residents. 

“We greatly value and respect the wealth of expertise and strengths brought by MayView,” said Luisa Buada, Chief Executive Officer, South County Community Health Center. “Ravenswood Family Health Center’s aim is to build a strong and robust future together in North Santa Clara County with the primary goal of providing high-quality care for our patients and families.”

This merger builds upon earlier efforts by Simitian and the County to support MayView in providing services to North County residents, including: 

• Writing a letter of support to the Health Resources and Services Administration in March of 2008 supporting MayView’s efforts to obtain greater federal funding;
• Providing over half a million dollars of County funds to have an OB/GYN for two days a week at MayView locations from 2013 to 2015 and then again in 2017 to 2018;
• Writing a letter of support for Mayview’s Measure A grant in December of 2013 to provide improved services;
• Calling for County assistance to MayView Community Health Center to continue operations at its Sunnyvale clinic during trying times in December of 2017;
• Allocating $375,000 in emergency stabilization funding for MayView to hire one full-time physician and one half-time nurse practitioner in April of 2018;
• Writing a letter of support in March of 2019 for Mayview’s proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for additional funding; and,
• Allocating $900,000 in additional financial support from the County for ongoing operations of MayView clinic in April of 2019. 

MayView CEO Ken Graham applauded Santa Clara County saying, “We are particularly grateful to the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Joe Simitian who represents District Five, and County Executive Jeff Smith for their commitment to strengthen the health care safety net in north Santa Clara County.”

Ravenswood Family Health Center was founded in 2002 in East Palo Alto, and serves patients from North Fair Oaks (an unincorporated area in South San Mateo County), the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, and portions of the North County area in Santa Clara County. They currently provide primary health care, dental care, integrated behavioral health care, optometry and vision care.

Simitian noted that all three MayView clinics (Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale) serve his district (District Five), and that, “without them we’d be in a world of hurt. Thousands of families depend on MayView, so it’s absolutely essential that MayView’s staff and services remain available.” Simitian noted the need was particularly please critical given that his district is the only one of the County’s five supervisorial districts that does not have a County health clinic. 

Simitian said he was, “particularly pleased that Ravenswood has stepped up. They’re a long time provider of health care services and they’re very well regarded.” While Ravenswood has historically served families in south San Mateo County, they’ve also served families from Santa Clara County pursuant to a 2017 County contract championed by Simitian. 

Simitian noted that “MayView has struggled valiantly over the years, but federal funding formulas have made it tough. Fortunately, Ravenswood’s status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) works for our region and our patients.”