Redwood Community Health Center

The Times- Standard reports on progress with the morphing of Eureka's Redwood Family Practice into what will be known as Redwood Community Health Center. Call me the stick- in- the- mud but I have bad feelings about this.

I'm glad those of us who use Redwood Family Practice will not only still have some place to go, but it also being at the same place. I do wonder if this effort will end up along the lines of North Coast Family Practice being bought out by Doctor Badgley's Downtown Medical Group, or whatever that was called, some years ago?

I used to go to Northcoast Family Practice. Went there for probably decades, although not frequently as I"m not one to go see a doctor every time I have a runny nose. It was a fine place back then with an attractive office and waiting room and long time, experienced staff. I used to feel good in the waiting room alongside all the soccer moms with their kids.

Then Badgely bought them out and things went downhill fast. He moved it to a bare office space on the corner of Lucas and Harrison over by the General Hospital campus and had problems keeping staff on board. It seemed every time I'd go in there would be new nurses. The only long time employee I recall being the receptionist.

I felt Dr. Badgley a competent doctor, but the new practice left me feeling my health wasn't in good hands. The waiting room alone seemed cheap: a couple potted plants with leaves turning brown from lack of water. No reading material to speak of, mostly medical stuff, pamphlets like Diabetes and You, and the room full of the obvious not well off folks, including asians with their umpteen kids taking up all the space in the room. It was like going to the welfare office. But that's what happens when you're one of the few doctors that accepts poor people's insurance like CMSP or MediCal. I suppose that's to Badgley's credit. as he pointed out, "If I don't take these patients, who will?"

Never mind the long wait times there- my record being an hour in the waiting room and 2 hours in the exam room before I saw the doctor for ten minutes. I'd generally take the whole day off just to see the doctor back when I was going there.

Redwood Family Practice was a breath of fresh air when I started there. I can't help but wonder if it's going to turn into the same mess N. C. Family Practice did once Badgley took over?