Cástulo de la Rocha and AltaMed Health Services Corporation: Providing Comprehensive Medical Care to California’s Underserved Communities

A fully accredited integrated medical system founded more than 40 years ago, AltaMed Health Services Corporation has transformed Southern California’s affordable healthcare sector under the direction of Cástulo de la Rocha, the company’s long tenured President and CEO. Delivering personalized treatment to millions of state residents since its inception in the late 1960s, AltaMed originally launched as a small, two-employee clinic in East Los Angeles and hired Mr. de la Rocha to fulfill a temporary assignment in 1977. Envisioning a bright future for the burgeoning non-profit (operating on a shoestring budget as La Clinica Familiar del Barrio at the time), de la Rocha subsequently undertook a bold development endeavor with resources provided by the federal government’s Urban Health Initiative.  

By the mid-1980s, AltaMed had opened a second treatment location, instituted transportation assistance for patients, and established programs specifically geared toward adolescents and the elderly. Awarded a million-plus dollar grant to fund additional senior care services in 1986, the corporation successfully bid on a major substance abuse treatment contract shortly thereafter, one of many milestones that would spur continued growth in the years to follow. Throughout the 1990s, AltaMed introduced a host of system-wide improvements including a methadone and HIV services division, an Alzheimer’s program, and various other community outreach projects. As the organization celebrated yet another productive decade with accreditation from The Joint Commission for Behavioral Health, Cástulo de la Rocha set his sights on even loftier goals and expanded primary care services yet again into a number of formerly underserved East L.A. communities.  

Today, Cástulo directs all 44 of AltaMed’s California locations and strives to ensure that the company remains on the cutting edge of modern medicine in every respect. From the electronic health records that AltaMed staff use to track patient progress to an innovative pharmacy operation that many uninsured and low-income individuals rely on for ongoing access to medication, the corporation has garnered a reputation as a healthcare industry pioneer driven by compassion, integrity, and an unshakable commitment to excellence in practice.