Our focus during the month of June has been to retrace the 50 year history of Community Health Centers through the lens of an individual health center.  That is what brought us to Neighborhood Healthcare, an award-winning health center in southern California that is marking its 46th year of providing quality care. How did it …

To measure how far we have come we first have to look at where Community Health Centers started 50 years ago. It began with a cause, and then an opportunity.  The cause was lack of access to basic healthcare among the poor, and the opportunity was President Lyndon B. Johnson’s major War on Poverty initiatives in the mid 1960s. Doctors Jack Geiger …

In Connecticut nearly 40 years ago Optimus Health Care, Inc. (formally known as Bridgeport Community Health Center) was founded by a group of civic-minded individuals committed to the goal of starting a healthcare home in their neighborhood. It was not going to be easy.   The site was located in an apartment house where pigeons were roosting in …

We plan to continue blog postings about the 50th Anniversary for June focusing on the theme of “How Far We Have Come.” We will be looking at health centers that have made a long journey from humble beginnings, such as church basements, neighborhood storefronts or small trailers, into now dynamic health delivery systems showcasing what is possible in community health.  Telling …

Community Health Centers serve more than 260,000 of America’s Veterans. Yet, did you know that they are also engaged as part of a joint initiative launched by the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to hire more Veterans, and to help returning servicemen and women transition into civilian life? Health centers …

This blog was originally published in the Huffington Post as part of a series of posts raising awareness of National Women’s Health Week.  My mother, the certified nursing assistant (CNA), has stage four breast cancer. She has tumors in her breast, on her hip and on her skull. The tumor on her hip is what bothers …

Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced New Access Point grants that will expand care to nearly 650,000 people in 33 states and two U.S. Territories [see news release]. In making the announcement in North Carolina Secretary Burwell. said,“Health centers are keystones of the communities they serve. Today’s awards will enable more individuals and families …

Today’s blog post comes to us courtesy of our friends at  Piedmont Health Services in Carrboro, NC:  Saying that Melba Jones is part of the patient family at the Carrboro Community Health Center is an understatement.  The 83-year-old Chapel Hill resident has been a patient at the center as long as it has been there, and …

Our guest blogger today is Karen Scott, a Public Relations Specialist at A.T. Still University:   Arizona’s A.T. Still University of Health Sciences (ATSU), a longtime NACHC partner, is known for innovative curricula that prepare medical and dental students to work with underserved populations by embedding the students in Community Health Centers (CHCs) for large chunks of their …

We have written extensively on this blog about the cost-savings that Community Health  Centers produce for U.S. healthcare system ($24 billion a year, by the way).  Now comes a new report from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers which shows that the Commonwealth’s 49 health centers generate annual savings of more than $1 billon for Massachusetts. The $1.1 …