Posted Courtesy of Wright Enterprises Community Spotlight San Francisco~Dallas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, January 13, 2023
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org
***PRESS RELEASE***
MAYOR BREED CELEBRATES THE OPENING OF NEW MARIA X MARTINEZ HEALTH RESOURCE CENTER
New comprehensive South of Market facility will provide wraparound health services and improve healthcare access for people experiencing homelessness
San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed, Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax, and City leaders today celebrated the opening of the Maria X Martinez Health Resource Center (MXM), a newly constructed urgent care and transitional primary care clinic named after longtime San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) leader, Maria X Martinez, who dedicated her career to advocating for and providing the highest quality health care to our most vulnerable communities.
Located at 555 Stevenson St., MXM is one of the San Francisco Health Network’s (SFHN) two urgent care clinics and receives approximately 15,000 visits a year. The center specializes in providing multi-disciplinary services to respond to a wide range of medical, psychological and social needs of vulnerable adults in San Francisco, especially people experiencing homelessness.
SFHN includes 14 primary care clinics,11 clinics that focus on youth health and two hospitals. MXM replaced the Tom Waddell Urgent Care Clinic which operated at 50 Ivy St.
“Access to quality healthcare is a basic human right, and it is our job to ensure that our most vulnerable communities have that access,” said Mayor London Breed. “With the opening of the Maria X Martinez Health Resource Center we are better equipped to provide more people with comprehensive, focused health care services and better meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.”
MXM offers drop-in urgent care, transitional primary care, dental services, podiatry, follow-up wound care, and medications for substance use addiction treatment. Construction of the new two-story, state-of-the art facility began in March 2020 and was completed in September 2022. The center includes 10 upgraded exam rooms with an accompanying counseling room, four consultation rooms, four dentistry chairs, a laboratory, office space, and conference rooms for staff.
“This is a critical facility to ensure the City is providing direct access and care to residents in need in the surrounding neighborhood,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey whose district includes South of Market. “By providing a range of services at a drop-in location, we are meeting people where they are to ensure they receive the health care they need.”
MXM is part of an important legacy of health services delivering urgent care in San Francisco. The clinic’s namesake worked for SFDPH for 23 years, during which she passionately championed the needs of vulnerable populations. Maria X Martinez focused on building initiatives and developing care models for high-risk populations through new collaborations and system design. A key member of SFDPH leadership, she served in various roles including Deputy Director of Community Programs, Senior Staff to the Director of Health, Chief Integrity Officer, and the Director of Whole Person Care.
Maria strived to bring a racial and equity lens to create a seamless network of services to engage and meet the complex needs of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents. She passed away in July 2020.
“Maria made it her life’s work to care for underserved and vulnerable populations,” said Director of Health, Dr. Grant Colfax. “Under her leadership and vision, San Francisco developed new models of care to better serve San Franciscans by adopting a population-based approach to providing holistic health services to people experiencing homelessness. We are thrilled to be able to name this essential facility after Maria to honor her legacy.”
MXM served an immediate need to upgrade and relocate the former Tom Waddell Urgent Care Clinic to more holistically serve clients and ensure patient needs are met. Patients at MXM primarily come from the surrounding South of Market, Tenderloin, and Civic Center neighborhoods. The resource center was delivered on-budget and funded through the SFDPH General Fund and Certificate of Participation (COP) as well as the Homelessness and Supportive Housing General Obligation (GO) Bond.
“As a mother, she was kind, loving and gentle. To see her as such a powerful force of nature with her work was to see her through another lens” said Maria’s daughter, Paloma Martinez. “I admired her deeply as a mother, as well as a career woman and community organizer. I miss her so very much but find comfort knowing just how loved she was by so many people.”
The resource center houses the offices of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s Homeless Outreach Team (SFHOT), a mobile team that engages and stabilizes clients on the streets by voluntarily placing them into shelters and housing or connecting them with other resources. It is also comprised of two other WPIC programs; the San Francisco Street Medicine Team, which provides medical services and assessments to people on the streets, and the Post Overdose Engagement Team, part of the Street Overdose Response Team (SORT) that focuses on overdose prevention for people experiencing homelessness. Both programs utilize MXM as a central hub to support clients into transitional primary care.
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