CEMA pledges $500K to Clovis Community
Thanks to Community Emergency Medical Associates’ (CEMA) pledge of $500,000, Clovis Community Medical Center will kick off its campaign to expand its facilities and services for Valley patients.
CEMA’s contribution is earmarked for Clovis Community’s emergency department expansion, where the funds will be used to create more capacity for patients and further enhance technology and equipment.
“We are extremely grateful for this significant pledge. It will help with our major expansion plans that include a much-needed expanded emergency department,” said Clovis Community CEO Craig Castro.
CEMA is a partnership of emergency physicians formed in September 1977 to provide emergency physician coverage at then-Fresno Community Hospital. In 1979, CEMA began providing services at the old Clovis Community Hospital on Dewitt Avenue. Most of CEMA's 12 partners have been with the group for more than 20 years. CEMA also employs nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and though it provides some services at Community Regional Medical Center, its primary focus is Clovis Community.
“Our long history at Clovis makes us very committed to the hospital and community,” said CEMA partner Dr. Keith Grazier. “We have always felt it was our responsibility to give back to the community and are pleased to do so by making our gift.”
"CEMA's pledge to Clovis Community Medical Center is an outstanding example of the caliber of our physicians at Clovis,” Castro said. “This generous act only underscores Dr. Keith Grazier and his partners’ leadership and commitment level as, together, we strive to deliver exceptional care to our patients.”
Dr. Grazier says almost 30 years ago the old Clovis emergency department (ED) on DeWitt had two rooms and saw less than 20 patients per day. As Clovis grew, the need for a new hospital became apparent.
“When Leon S. Peters and the rest of the board decided to buy 140 acres of oranges in the middle of nowhere there were those who thought it was a mistake,” Dr. Grazier said. “There were many who said, ‘Who was going to drive way out there to get care?’ Now it’s obvious that the board's vision was 20/20.”
More than two decades ago, Dr. Grazier and his colleagues took part in the design of Clovis Community’s current facility that stands at Herndon and Temperance avenues and will now have a chance to do it again.
“The preliminary design provides an ED that is capable of seeing over twice the patients we now care for with greatly increased privacy and comfort,” Dr. Grazier said.
Today at Clovis Community more than 26,000 patients pass through the doors of the ED in a year, and those numbers are expected to grow in the near future.
Dr. Grazier said the expansion is vital to the people of Clovis as well as Community. He said when the current hospital was built the average age of Clovis residents was quite young. The aging of those residents plus the influx of a large number of new families has greatly increased the demand for emergency and hospital inpatient care. This, plus the projected future population growth, makes a larger ED and hospital mandatory, he said.
“With the added space, we will be able to provide high-quality emergency care without long waits well into the foreseeable future,” Dr. Grazier said.
Over the past few years CEMA was instrumental in several philanthropic endeavors at Community and is considered one of the leading "giving" physician groups by its peers.
CEMA’s lifetime giving totals more than $1 million and has supported projects at Clovis Community (1987), California Cancer Center (1991) and Community Regional’s trauma critical care building campaign (1998).
This story was reported by Mary Lisa Russell. She can be reached at mrussell@communitymedical.org.