San Antonio Medical Jobs Created by ARRA Funding

A new round of funding will help to create San Antonio medical jobs and construction jobs.

Four clinics in the San Antonio area will soon receive up to $39 million in federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make renovations, build new facilities and hire more employees.

A total of $600 million from the stimulus bill will go to 85 community health centers throughout the country.
As much as $88 million in federal funding will go toward an initiative to increase the use of electronic medical records and upgrade technologies.

El Centro Del Barrio Inc. clinic in San Antonio will receive $11 million to renovate and improve the facility, which is located in a federally-recognized Medically Underserved Area and Health Professional Shortage Area. In addition, Brownsville Community Health Center will receive $7.5 million, Project Vida Health Center in El Paso will receive $6 million and Su Clinica Familiar in Harlingen will receive $7.5 million.

"These investments won't just increase efficiency and lower costs," President Barack Obama said. "They'll improve the quality of care as well, preventing countless medical errors and allowing providers to spend less time with paperwork and more time with patients."

Obama also has asked Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, to begin a three-year trial on how to improve care for Medicare patients at community health centers. It is estimated that up to 500 health centers would participate in that trial.

"But we don’t just want our health centers to provided more care for more patients," Obama added. "We want them to provide better care as well."

The additional healthcare jobs will help to support San Antonio's continually increasing education and health services industry, while the added construction jobs could help to revive the area's declining construction industry.

San Antonio's education and health services industry employed 122,900 workers during October, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 121,900 workers during September and a .1 percent increase from last year.

The city's construction industry employed 52,300 workers during October, down from 52,900 workers during September and a 2.1 percent decrease from last year.