Seems I’ve covered little in terms of health care, of late, so my blog has suffered terribly. Fires, wolves and tribal fishing have taken over, so I haven’t gotten into any local health care stories, although I’ve thought of several I’d like to tackle when the summer season calms down a bit. Be patient, that will be very soon.

One story I hope to look into next week is the growing use of community health centers, or what we used to call farmworker clinics. On Tuesday, I got a news release from the Washington Association of Community and Migrant Health Centers. The group announced that community health centers in Washington — like Columbia Valley Community Health in Wenatchee and Family Health Centers in Okanogan County — now serve 10 percent of the state’s population, including many uninsured and Medicaid recipients.

A report, Vital Signs 2008, shows medical and dental visits have jumped 58 percent from 10 years ago. It also goes into detail about who is served, their payment methods, income levels, etc. I’d like to explore what the growth has been locally, as compared with the rest of the state, and ask folks who run the local community health centers why they think the need has grown.

If anyone reading this goes to Columbia Valley or Family Health, I’d love to hear your perspective.

Just so you know, Gov. Chris Gregoire declared Aug. 10-16 as Health Center Week, recognizing them as critical to providing quality health care in this state. That won’t likely be part of the story when I ask local community health centers about the growth, but you might want to recognize them in your own way.