Community Health Centers have a long-standing and proud tradition of providing patient-centered care. That means a patient’s individual needs and health outcomes drive clinical decisions. A key feature of how many health centers accomplish that task is through the integration of primary care and behavioral health. Health check-ups in the exam room focus on both …
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A Food Desert in Ohio Welcomes a New Grocery Store, Thanks to a Community Health Center
If you want fresh foods on your table, open your own grocery store. That is what happened in Franklinton, Ohio, on the West side of Columbus, in a community that struggled as a food desert until Lower Lights Christian Health Center opened the Jubilee Market and Cafe. The health center started the nonprofit grocery store …
Michigan Health Center Leader Gets the Spotlight for Reducing Unnecessary ER Visits
Patty Wagenhofer-Rucker wasn’t looking for any special recognition when she began her work as Integrated Health Director at Genesee Community Health Center in Flint, MI, but that’s what happened anyway. Her work at the health center has reduced unnecessary hospital emergency room visits by 80 percent in the past three years, which caught the notice of …
A Healer and Advocate in Colorado
It is unfortunate if you have lived on this planet without meeting Virgilio Licona, MD. Those of us who have been in the same room with Dr. Licona, as a patient, colleague, or audience to one of his thoughtful speeches about healthcare, well, we just feel grateful to have stood near his shadow. Dr. Licona has made …
Improving Oral Health At Home and Abroad
As part of our yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the health center movement we are spending the month of July taking a closer look at some of the faces in the health center world. Today our focus is on a healthcare hero located in rural North Carolina. Dr. Francis Serio of Greene County Health …
Serving Health Centers Through Community HealthCorps
We’re celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Community Health Center Movement with a special focus on workforce throughout the month of July. Today we begin with a closer look at Community HealthCorps, the largest health-focused AmeriCorps program founded by NACHC in 1995 with the mission of improving healthcare access and boosting the health center workforce. Community HealthCorps …
How Far We Have Dreamed
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 …
Where We Began and How Far We Have Come
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 Bridgeport a Humble Start with a Big Finish
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 …
All Things Healthcare Update
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 …