OUR HISTORY: Located in the cities of Vista and Oceanside in northern San Diego County, Vista Community Clinic (VCC) is a private, nonprofit health care center. It was founded in 1972 to serve people who experience social, cultural or economic barriers to health care. Conceived in the days of free street clinics, VCC's first home was donated space in the local dog pound. Volunteer doctors and nurses cared for people who could not otherwise obtain health care. Pharmaceutical representatives donated drugs and supplies.
In 1974, the Clinic received its first governmental funding and moved to an old church building. The number of people the Clinic served continued to grow. In 1980, we saw more than 8,000 patients in 16,000 visits annually. The decade of the 1980's was a period of tremendous population growth in North County; Vista and Oceanside doubled their population. The Vale Terrace Branch site was built for Vista Community Clinic in 1986. In 1988, Vista Community Clinic opened the Tri-City Branch on Thunder Drive across from Tri-City Medical Center. This location was closed in 2009, in coordination with a new facility opening up on Grapevine Road. Today, we have 5 sites in and serve 56,000 patients with 235,000 patient visits.