On July 20, Bishop Alberto Rojas blessed the grand opening of the new location of Lestonnac Free Clinic in San Bernardino. Lestonnac Free Clinics’ mission is to provide free health care services to low-income and uninsured residents in Southern California, through the support of generous volunteers and donors.
The blessing by Bishop Rojas was attended by San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran, San Bernardino County Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca Jr., Executive Director Edward Gerber, Lestonnac Board Chairman Al Martini, San Bernardino Councilmember Damon Alexander, our Chancellor, Sister Leticia Salazar, ODN, and other stakeholders. After the blessing, Bishop Rojas spoke about how the clinic’s funding through donors is a reflection of God’s love.
“It has benefited us in many ways,” said Laura Montoya, Lead Medical Assistant at the San Bernardino clinic. “Our clinic has been expanding and growing so fast in the last couple of years, so this move has been a blessing to our clinic. It is a lot bigger, it’s a lot wider, we have room for much more providers.”
The new building was provided by Dignity Health St. Bernardine Medical Center and includes a provider office, staff break room, a much-needed spacious back-office area, designated dermatology room, three treatment rooms, one also being a tele-medicine room, and another being an ultrasound room, according to Montoya. The tele-medicine room, created in response to the 2020 pandemic, incorporates innovative portable medical equipment, allowing almost any specialty to become available to patients regardless of location.
The Lestonnac Free Clinic offers various medical, dental and vision care. The clinic can also connect patients to their Community Referral Network, a web-based referral platform that facilitates relationships with community clinics and hospitals to bridge service gaps. Lestonnac providers also drive a mobile medical unit to five cities throughout Riverside County twice a week with a rotating schedule to service local churches, community centers, and non-profit organizations to provide support to the patients.
“Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers that we had,” Montoya said. “All thanks to volunteers..that were able to help us and set up everything really quickly…thanks to everybody that was here to help us set up, it was amazing.”
This new Lestonnac Free Clinic in San Bernardino is located at 1890 N Waterman Ave., San Bernardino, CA 92404. The hours of operation are Monday, Tuesday, Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm and Thursday, & Friday from 12 - 7 pm. To contact the San Bernardino Lestonnac Free Clinic, call (909) 881-4800.
Elena Macias is the Managing Editor of the Inland Catholic BYTE.