Macias Family Health Center opens in National City

San Ysidro Health will gather with the community on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Macias Family Health Center, a 44,000-square-foot medical facility in National City that will consolidate and expand two existing clinics that the medical provider already operates in the area.

Located a 601 E. 14th St., the center began receiving patients on Dec. 22, doubling the number of medical exam rooms available for people receiving primary and dental care and also adding a behavioral health unit, which San Ysidro has not previously offered in National City. The two-story building’s first floor is occupied by San Diego PACE, a program that provides comprehensive medical and other services to seniors who are medically qualified for skilled nursing home care.

It is the latest expansion of San Ysidro’s PACE program. Medicare allows public and private nonprofits of various types to offer PACE programs as a way of preventing nursing home admissions by combining social and medical services, and even transportation to and from day centers where care is often provided. The acronym stands for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.

San Ysidro Health operates PACE centers in San Ysidro, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Vista, making National City its fifth. Plans are underway to add a sixth location on the first floor of the Jacobs Center in Southeast San Diego, which the federally qualif...