BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — The Caridad Center is the largest free health care clinic in Florida, and they are set to receive $1.1 million in federal funding.
Caridad Center CEO Laura Kallus said the money will allow them to make some much needed upgrades, as well as build their first free mobile clinic.
"As far as I know, this is the first one [in the county] for a free clinic," Kallus said.
The center plans to submit quotes for the equipment and mobile unit in the coming weeks. Once approved, they plan to purchase the equipment immediately.
Kallus said the mobile clinic will have two rooms, one for dental care and the other for physical exams. She said it will help serve people in the more rural areas of the county who otherwise may not have health care.
"If we have the best equipment, we're going to get the best doctors. And if we get the best doctors, we're going to get the best care for our patients," Kallus said. "We want everybody that comes to the Caridad Center to have that sense of dignity and to know that no matter what their status is, economic status, social status, they are going to get good quality care."
Kallus said they hope to have the mobile unit up and running in late 2023.
The federal dollars will also allow them to make some much needed upgrades to their equipment.
"We see so many people in our dental clinic that our equipment wears out really fast, much faster than if you were in a private setting, because we have hundreds in there every day, year after year," said Kallus.
Kallus said they plan to buy new oral surgery tools and lasers for their vision clinic. She said a lot of their equipment is more than 10 years old and in dire need of replacing.
