LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — On Monday, July 17, Huntridge Family Clinic officially reopened.
Channel 13 first told you about the clinic during Pride Month. It serves thousands of folks in the Las Vegas valley's LGBTQ+ community and temporarily closed in the spring. Family nurse practitioner Rob Phoenix largely attributed the closure to financial struggles, along with the need for more compassion, as well as healthcare policy reform.
"I'm really thankful for the way the community partners have really stepped up and helped our patients over the past couple of months," Phoenix said. "For those of you that kind of stood behind us and really helped us stay on track, I'm really thankful for the support that we got from the community."
While the clinic was largely closed for most of the spring and early summer, Phoenix did work to refill prescriptions and provide some infusion treatments to folks living with HIV in small groups, when possible.
Now, thanks to financial and management support from CAN Community Health Services, the Huntridge Family Clinic was able to reopen on July 17. The private, nonprofit organization is based out of Sarasota, Florida and has several clinics across the country.
"We've been operating kind of as a mini-CAN clinic for the past 10 years, because our missions are so intertwined and our approach to barrier-free care and getting patients into care as quickly as possible and with as little obstacles as possible, are so intertwined. It's a really, really good fit," Phoenix said.
According to its website, CAN is "dedicated to the treatment, care and continual wellness of people living with HIV." Phoenix said Huntridge's and CAN Community Health Services' philosophies align well, with Huntridge being the largest PrEP provider in Southern Nevada.
"Things happen for a reason and I think one of the reasons that this happened is because we needed to make some adjustments in how we were delivering services and this kind of forced a hard reset. And I think this will allow us to come back bigger and better and stronger and really continue to shake up care, like we've done for the past ten years," Phoenix said.
While Phoenix said he is thrilled to be serving the community once again, the reopening is "bittersweet," because they are operating under reduced hours and capacity. Phoenix said they used to have four providers at the clinic. Now, he's the sole provider. While he has been able to re-hire many of his employees, they do have a smaller overall staff. He said they won't initially be able to serve all of the nearly 5,000 patients they once did, but he intends to get back to full strength eventually.
"The goal is, over time, hopefully by the end of the year, we'll be able to bring at least one or more providers back on board and be able to bring back more of our patients, but baby steps," Phoenix said. "That's really hard for me."
Huntridge Family Clinic's new operating hours, effective July 17:
- Monday: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- Tuesday - Friday: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Closed for lunch 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
- Closed Saturday & Sunday
Huntridge Family Clinic is located off of St. Louis and Sahara avenues, at 1820 E. Sahara Ave. Suite 201 Las Vegas, NV 89104.
