San Ysidro Health (formerly San Ysidro Health Center) is a non-profit organization committed to providing high quality, compassionate, accessible and affordable health care services for the entire family.
The mission of San Ysidro Health is to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve with access for all. Originally established along the border in 1969, the organization was founded by seven women in search of medical services for their children. Fifty years later, San Ysidro Health now provides innovative services to more than 108,000 lives in our care through a vast and integrated network of 47 program sites across San Diego County including: medical and dental clinics, behavioral health centers, HIV centers, WIC nutrition centers, mobile medical units, school-based health centers, chiropractic services, pediatric developmental clinic, teen clinic, senior health center and Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).
Our organizations new name and brand identity pay homage to its humble beginnings in the community where it was established 51 years ago. This community was named in honor of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers, day laborers, and rural communitiesthe working poor. San Isidro spent his life as a hired hand and always shared what little he had, even his meals, with people in need. These values of compassion and care for others still ring true in the organizations mission to improve the health and well-being of all in the communities we serve, especially the most vulnerable across San Diego County. With this rebranding the goal is to make the organizations innovative healthcare services more identifiable, convenient and accessible for the thousands of families that are served. It is our honor and privilege to emulate these values daily.
San Ysidro Healthis a Federally Qualified Health Center and a Federal Tort Claims Act Deemed facility.The Federal government acts as the primary insurer. FTCA deeming enables us to invest more to increase health care services and fund quality improvement activities.
This health center receives HHS funding and has Federal Public Health Service (PHS) deemed status with respect to certain health or health-related claims, including medical malpractice claims, for itself and its covered individuals.
El proyecto lleva las dosis de la vacuna a comunidades de difcil acceso en un intento por ampliar la inmunizacin contra el virus. El camin se mueve por el condado de San Diego aplicando dosis gratuitas a sus residentes.
In 1969, San Ysidro Healths Founding Mothers came together with a common mission that would set the tone for health and well being in their community for generations to come. The mothers, with their entire families, typically had to travel to University Hospital in Hillcrest to receive medical care. This was often a day-long trek transferring from bus to bus. To solve this problem, the Founding Mothers formed el Club de Madres to help their children and people in the community find affordable and culturally-appropriate health care in their own neighborhood.
In early 1969, three of the Founding Mothers found their way to Dr. Ruth Covell, who was then the Assistant to the Dean of University of California San Diegos (UCSD) School of Medicine in La Jolla, California. Dr. Covell, a current San Ysidro Health Board Member, was familiar with funding sources for such projects and was drawn to the Founding Mothers vision, passion and conviction. Despite language differences, Dr. Covell and the Founding Mothers developed a plan of action. From the beginning, the objective was to deliver medical services as well as provide jobs within the community and inspire young people to seek health careers.
La Casita opened its doors in August of 1969 at 223 Mesa Boulevard in San Ysidro, California. Approximately 40 patients per day were seen by three volunteer nurses and two physicians, two afternoons per week.The Founding Mothers commitment continued. They volunteered their time and met frequently with children in the community to discuss current and future growth.
We invite you to view our Legacy video which tells you the beautiful story of how a group of concerned mothers in San Ysidro, with limited formal education, organized their efforts and came together with the vision of having the best care available for the most vulnerable in their community children and seniors and the ill.