Medical Complex to Ease Shortage of Doctors Set to Open in Southeast

Most of Dr. Frantz Derenoncourt’s loyal patients live in Southeast San Diego and have to travel about 30 minutes for their appointments with the cardiovascular surgeon at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.

“Most don’t really like to come out” to his office, Derenoncourt said. Those without cars have to coordinate rides with friends or relatives and sometimes must wait up to two hours after 20-minute visits for their ride home.

But soon the hassle will be over for Derenoncourt’s patients.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony and health fair this morning at the Gateway Center East redevelopment area will herald the opening July 5 of Southeast San Diego’s first new medical building in more than 15 years. And Derenoncourt will be able to serve his patients where they live--from his new office in Gateway.

Introducing $5.5-million Center

The health fair will familiarize the community with the $5.5-million Gateway Medical Center--a complex of doctors’ offices, laboratories and a pharmacy--by allowing residents to sample some of the services free, said Dr. Charlie Johnson, a partner in the development.

The building, near the intersection of Interstate 15 and California 94, was created by developers and doctors to bring convenient and high-quality health care to the predominantly minority community of Southeast San Diego, Johnson said.

Dr. Richard Butcher, a general practitioner in Southeast San Diego since 1969 and president of the San Diego County Medical Society, said the center will encourage doctors to establish themselves in the community.

Butcher estimated that the physician-patient ratio in Southeast is 1 to 1,600 or more; in La Jolla it is about 1 to 300, he said. Retirement and a lack of incoming doctors have caused a net decrease in doctors in Southeast San Diego, a community of about 100,000, Butcher and Johnson said. The community “has been deserted in terms of medical care delivery when compared to the rest of the city,” Johnson said.

Doctors don’t want to set up practices in Southeast San Diego because many patients there are covered only by Medi-Cal, which pays less than half the bill, Butcher said. “There is a heavy load of these kinds of patients in the area . . . where the infant morbidity (sickness rate) is in the area of 18% to 19%,” as contrasted with 10% to 12% for the county, he said.

But, according to Johnson, it is not the overabundance of Medi-Cal patients but rather the lack of adequate facilities that keeps doctors from setting up practice in the Southeast area.

“By far the highest percentage of the (medically insured) population in Southeast San Diego has some other coverage other than Medi-Cal,” Johnson said. In fact, the new center is geared toward those who are not covered by Medi-Cal, he said, although physicians there will accept Medi-Cal patients.

According to Johnson, many of the new complex’s tenants have been serving the Southeast San Diego community from offices as far away as Grossmont. And patients from the area had to travel to such communities as La Mesa and La Jolla for care.

“It is good to have a center of this kind coming in,” Butcher said. Referring to the lack of doctors in the area, he said, “Gateway Medical won’t change the problem. The center itself is not a solution.”

The Southeast Economic Development Corp was a major promoter of the complex that will operate entirely on a walk-in basis. SEDC is a redevelopment agency set up by the city to create jobs for minorities in Southeast San Diego. Starboard Development Corp. and Derenoncourt also helped finance the center, 20% of which must be minority-owned, according to SEDC guidelines.

The Johnson-Gateway Medical Clinic, the primary tenant of the three-story, tinted-glass and steel building, plans to bring in specialists in such areas as gynecology, pediatrics, podiatry and dentistry. Many medical specialties are not now represented in the Southeast. Johnson said that, although the center, at 995 Gateway Center Way, will not ease the load on local hospitals, it could benefit them by keeping patients in the area.

“We are looking forward to the opening and feel like it will have a positive effect on the community,” said Carolyn Johnson, vice president for patient-care service at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City.

The center, which is about 80% occupied, will have special programs for the elderly, according to Charlie Johnson. Although it will be open for business July 5, the center will not be fully operational until all tenants have moved in 8 to 12 weeks later.

The building will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.