Ryan White Title III HIV Capacity Development and Planning Grants - Title: FY 2023 RWHAP Part C Capacity Development Program Organization: La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. Address: 4060 Fairmount Avenue, San Diego, CA 92105 Project Director Name: Dr. Carmela Ambrosio Contact Phone Number: 619.269.1267 Email Address: cambrosio@lamaestra.org Website Address: www.lamaestra.org Funds Requested: $150,000 Funding Preference: Underserved Populations La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) and a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). For more than 32 years, the organization has served immigrant, refugee, uninsured, and underinsured populations, including People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the underserved communities of central, east and south San Diego County, California. La Maestra currently operates 18 medical clinics, ten dental suites, three school-based sites, and two mobile medical and dental units, and a mobile mammogram coach. In 2021, La Maestra saw 39,943 patients and screened 45.70%, or 18,253 patients for HIV. La Maestra provides needed linguistically and culturally appropriate primary care, specialty care, and support services to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay with the target population being individuals and families living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. For this project, La Maestra is requesting funding from the HRSA Ryan White Program as part of the Infrastructure Development category, Dental Infrastructure Capacity Improvement. The overall project goals are to improve access to HIV Care Continuum services for low-income, underserved PLWHA in San Diego County through improving infrastructure in the organization’s dental clinics. The organization is requesting $150,000 to purchase the following dental equipment and supplies: a Cavitron Plus Ultrasonic Scaler, to remove plaque buildup in teeth; Cavitron Detachable Handpieces for the scalers, an Elements Obturation System to fill root canals and prevent infections; Apex ID Digital Apex Locator for treatment of teeth with root formation problems; Midmark Automatic Steam Autoclaves to sterilize equipment; Maxisweep Ultrasonic Cleaner to clean dental equipment; StarDental Fiber Optic Handpieces used to remove damaged parts of teeth; DEXIS Titanium Intraoral Sensors for capturing dental imagery; and an Aribex NOMAD X-Ray system for taking dental x-rays. Each dental piece is critical to providing complete oral healthcare and standardizing the equipment and supplies used by dental providers across the multiple dental clinics. La Maestra’s goals for this program are to strengthen the organization’s dental infrastructure to improve access to quality health care for populations that are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic, outreach to high-risk populations about the services provided by La Maestra’s Dental and HIV Clinic, and provide care to at-risk patients according to the HIV care continuum. La Maestra will accomplish this by 1) providing HIV testing for at least 250 at-risk patients per month (3,000 total) including referrals from the dental department, 2) providing case management for patients who test positive for HIV to approximately 20 patients per year, 3) connect all positive patients, approximately 20 patients, to outside care through Owen’s Clinic at UCSD, and 4) connect high-risk patients or approximately 100 patients to primary care and education services through La Maestra. In addition, to better serve PLWHA, La Maestra staff will continue to participate in the San Diego HIV Planning Group and continue holding monthly Community Advisory Board (CAB) meetings with patients that are PLWHA. In order to reach more PLWHA, La Maestra’s HIV Care Clinic team will hold four outreach events per year to connect at-risk individuals to primary care including dental care and PrEP in order to improve patient care and access to the HIV Care Continuum.
