A ‘Sweet Home’ for new health center enables access to basic family care – and a pharmacy
Samaritan Health Services recently cut the ribbon on a new family health center in a rural Oregon town to ensure local access to family practice and urgent care services, thus filling a gap in care for a community where locals were forced to travel out of town to receive not just basic care, but to fill basic prescription needs.
Sweet Home, Ore., is a town of 8,900 in the rural western part of the state. After the closure of the town’s retail pharmacy in 2022, residents were forced to drive 20-30 minutes to nearby Lebanon to fill many prescriptions. The new 17,500 square-foot Sweet Home Medical Center changes that by offering retail pharmacy, along with providing walk-in care, family medicine services and a medicine management clinic. A helipad, an important feature in rural communities, is also part of the complex.
"The opening of this building and the services offered reinforce our commitment to increasing access to health care across the region that we serve," Samaritan Health Services CEO Doug Boysen said.