TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Organizers on Tuesday will cut a ribbon on Delano's new Gloria Nelson Center for Women and Children, a facility they predict will serve more than 30,000 patients annually.

The medical center, which will open in November, focuses on women and children's needs such as prenatal, gynecological and pediatric care.

"Delano is recognized as a medically underserved area, and we will be meeting the current and future needs of this community by building this clinic," said Jaime Mendoza, president of the North Kern-South Tulare Hospital District.

That district received $5.2 million in funding through a UnitedHealthcare financing program, about $3.5 million of which went to this 9,800-square-foot facility. UnitedHealthcare purchased the district's tax-exempt revenue bonds and provided a grant as part of its program targeting low-income and uninsured communities statewide, said Steven Henry, the director of UnitedHealthcare's California Health Care Investment Program.

UnitedHealthcare chose this Delano project, as well as about 10 other Central Valley facilities, to help improve access to rural health care, Henry said.

The Gloria Nelson Center has contracted with area physicians, including some from Kern Women's Health Group in Bakersfield, said Lidia Albiar, the administrator overseeing the facility. Having more services in Delano could help relieve the need for local patients to travel to Bakersfield or deal with long waits at other Delano facilities, she said. It will accept Medi-Cal and some private insurance as well as offer a sliding scale for payments.

Albiar said she anticipates the center will serve a great need in Delano, a region with significant poverty and unemployment that's also experiencing high population growth.

"It's a medically underserved area with not a lot of physicians to keep up with the needs," she said. "We're providing families with an option, and allowing them to seek quality medical care."