Southern California’s Lestonnac Free Clinic is the first surgery facility in the United States providing care entirely free of charge to uninsured patients, and an SNF grant helped the clinic equip its new surgery center with endoscopes and colonoscopes as part of the SNF Global Health Initiative’s (GHI) efforts to expand access to quality health care for all.
Though the procedures can detect potentially life-threatening conditions and are relatively quick to perform and minimally invasive, adults without insurance are significantly less likely to undergo endoscopies and colonoscopies. Lestonnac Free Clinic seeks to remove insurance status as a barrier to care; as a result of these efforts, endoscopies and colonoscopies comprise 80% of all procedures undergone by clinic patients, reaching people who likely would not otherwise receive them.
After years of using donated space for surgery, the clinic opened its own dedicated facility in 2025, and the endoscopes and colonoscopes procured through SNF’s grant will enable medical staff to perform these vital procedures in its new space.