It resembles almost any modern doctor’s office: bookshelves filled with color-coded patient files along the walls and parents holding squirming children in the waiting room.

Tucked away in a Canyon Country strip mall, the Northeast Valley Health Corp.’s newest Santa Clarita clinic is one of the
Santa Clarita Valley’s newest health care centers — and its patient load is growing, staff members say.

For the past year, the clinic at the intersection of Soledad Canyon Road and Sierra Highway has provided low-cost health care to thousands of uninsured local residents and those covered via MediCal.

Many of those patients, like 41-year-old Maria Sanchez, of Canyon Country, were referred to the nonprofit organization’s newest outpost by staff at the crowded Valencia clinic, open since 1995.

Now, Sanchez says, it’s just a short car ride or walk from her Canyon Country home to the new clinic where she brought her 8-month-old son for a checkup last week.

“It’s better,” she said of the shorter commute.

In addition to pediatrics, the year-old health center provides family planning services a couple of days each week.

The center houses seven fully equipped exam rooms, staffed most days with two physicians — a pediatrician and a family-planning doctor.

On the other side of the office, a Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, agency partners with the clinic and provides supplemental nutrition service, like food vouchers and breast-feeding resources, to low-income mothers.

Next month, thanks to additional state and federal funding, the Canyon Country center is set to expand, adding more hours and offering adult health services, prenatal care and a pharmacy dispensary, according to Northeast Valley Health Corp. spokesman Adolfo Lagomasino.

The organization had first planned to begin adult services this spring, but federal budget cuts delayed the center’s expansion until mid-August, he said.

For now, the Canyon Country center sees about 80 patients daily, but the hope is to see more and further reduce the burden on the Valencia clinic, said Clinic Administrator Sandra Gutierrez.

Many of the new center’s patients are referred from the Valencia center, while others hear about the clinic from family, friends or neighbors, she said.

To help spread the word about the clinic’s expanding services, the corporation is inviting local residents and legislators to an open house Aug. 9.

For more information about the services offered at the two local clinics, call (818) 898-1388 or log onto nevhc.org.