South County Health District (SCHD)

South County Health District

In 2009 the people of Union, Cove and North Powder raised money, got grants and worked together to build a beautiful new building for the Union Clinic. Later they added a dental clinic. It was the kind of clinic where you could be seen if you were sick, or cut yourself trying to fix the fence, or just needed to follow up with your provider. In order to manage the clinic and give it the benefit of having community funding and support, the people of Union, Cove and North Powder voted to create the South County Health District and elected the first 5-member board of directors. Unfortunately, times change and our little clinic became another casualty of the growing shortage of medical providers available to rural communities. In 2015 Grande Ronde Hospital agreed to assume the medical practice and provide doctors and nurse practitioners we needed. South County Health District kept the Union Family Dental Clinic and remained in the clinic building along with Grande Ronde’s new Union Clinic. 

The Dental clinic is a great resource for our community. It provides basic care at affordable prices and gives district voters discounts on their dental care. In April of 2023 we welcomed Dr. AJ Donick as our full time dentist.  With the help of his very talented staff he has been able to expand the services Union Family Dental Clinic provided to our community.  He is focused on preventative care and wellness.  He started the Cavity Free Club to encourage our youngest patients to develop good dental care habits.  Our District Manager works with insurance companies to get our patients the best care possible.  She helped us set up a sliding scale financial assistance program for those who don’t qualify for other programs that address their dental needs.  We have grown so much since April we are looking at a bigger clinic space for the dental clinic and new accommodations for the district.  What a nice problem to have!

The district is now working toward making dental care access easier.  We are working to put together a Teledentistry program to make it easier for you to communicate with us and to get help on issues that don’t require an in-person appointment.  Teledentistry can also help us do live streaming assessments on some issues to help you get a faster start on your treatment.  Look for that soon!

The board has applied for grants so we can offer Portable Dentistry to our patients. With this outreach we would purchase a mobile setup so we can do dental screenings away from the clinic and hopefully someday soon, do simple dental procedures in your home or other location. We want to make it possible for everyone in our district to have access to quality dental care despite their ability to come to us.  

We are also working on identifying and researching possible medical services that we can offer to the community that will help compliment what Grande Ronde Hospital is bringing to our area through the Union medical clinic.  Do you have ideas and suggestions?  Contact us at southcountyhd@outlook.com or join us at our regular board meetings on the last Tuesday of each month.  We are always happy to work with the community that supports us.

Union Family Dental Clinic: 541-562-2222

Hours: Monday-Thursday: 8:00AM-5:00PM Emergency Service by phone 24/7.

*Information provided here was taken from SCHD’s website: www.southcountyhd.com*