PHOENIX — A medical clinic in Phoenix is closing its doors this summer. It serves 5,000 children with specialized physical and behavioral needs.
Now, families are left to wonder - what’s next?
The Children’s Rehabilitative Services (CRS) Clinic, run by District Medical Group (DMG), is taking final appointments up until June 27. After that, coordinators will be on-site until July 18 to help families transfer to facilities where they will get the care they need.
For one patient, Bryce, life with cerebral palsy means many three-hour trips from his home in Kingman to Phoenix for medical care.
“I would say it kept my son alive,” Belinda, Bryce’s mom, said.
Every three months, he visits the DMG CRS Clinic. He has been going ever since he was two months old, back when the clinic was run by St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Now, at age 31, Bryce is approved for lifelong care.
However, on Thursday, his parents, Belina and Thomas, got a letter notifying them that the CRS Clinic is closing.
“I think it's going to have a big impact, because there's a lot of children that see these doctors to keep them healthy and alive,” Belinda said.
It is one of the largest specialty clinics for kids with complex pediatric conditions in the state.
Bryce’s parents say he has been through lung and heart care and multiple surgeries.
“His back fusion, he used to be hunched, now he stands tall thanks to that organization,” Thomas said.
They say the clinic helped him survive COVID-19.
“When he came down with COVID in 2020, the pulmonologist did wonders with keeping him alive,” Belinda said. “And now knowing that he's not going to have these doctors anymore, it's just, we don't even know where we're going to go.”
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Dr. Kote Chundu, District Medical Group CEO, says they are helping families with that transition.
“It has been a very difficult decision for everybody involved, and we exhausted all the different options that we had,” Dr. Chundu said.
He says previously, families seeking children’s rehabilitative services had insurance that would send them to just one provider. Then, in 2018, state policy changed, and insurance started covering these kids’ services at facilities closer to their homes.
“There are a lot more pediatric specialists in their neighborhoods now, which was not the case when we had the clinic 12 years back,” Dr. Chundu said. “The Valley has had tremendous growth. With that growth, the population is very much dispersed. And it is very hard to sustain a centralized clinic.”
So while at its peak, the CRS Clinic served 8,000 patients, Dr. Chundu says today that number has declined to 5,000 patients.
Now, DMG is encouraging families to contact their insurance and start transferring care to another provider.
“We're working with the health plans. We're working with the families, and also we're working with the providers, like Phoenix Children's Hospital or Banner Pediatric Specialists,” Dr. Chundu said.
For Bryce and his parents, after a lifetime of care, the clinic closure is a loss they call heartbreaking.
“Now the transition is probably going to be really hard, to find somebody that knows Bryce as well, I mean, with him being there since he was two months old,” Belinda said. “They've always done wonders with Bryce there, and I'm just sad to see their doors shut.”
Families that need help starting the process of transferring care can call the CRS Clinic at 602-914-1520.
