Community Health Center of Franklin County Incorporated

The Community Health Center of Franklin County (CHCFC) is a non-profit, Federally Qualified Community Health Center (FQHC) providing primary medical and dental care at its offices in Greenfield, Turners Falls and Orange.  Currently, the largest network of primary care clinicians nationally, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are a type of “safety net” provider that primarily serve low-income, underinsured and uninsured patients regardless of their ability to pay.  Our health center needs to raise charitable donations in order to remain economically viable and continue to provide much needed primary medical and dental services to every resident of our community who needs them without concern for their ability to pay.

 

Health care is personal. Community health centers often reach “above and beyond” the 30 minutes of a person’s life we see during their medical or dental visit.  Case in point: “George” was a 49-yr. old male patient who recently lost his job. When his physician wrote him a prescription for medication, George cried. He had no money to pay for these medications or food for his family. He also lost his home due to non-payment. He didn’t know what to do. Our staff connected George with the local housing authority which helped him find a place to live based on medical necessity. Our staff provided George with food coupons and helped him obtain his medications through our federal discount medication program. 

 

In our community, we know there is a very large need for urgent dental care. Historically, our Turners Falls dental office received 40-80 urgent calls per week from people who were not our patients.  In order to respond to a clear need from the community for urgent dental care, we created Walk-in Day at both dental offices. On this day, anyone can come to either office without an appointment for urgent dental care. Since January of 2013, we have treated nearly 1,000 walk-in patients on these two days. Patients are very thankful to get relief in a professional, respectful environment. We focus on getting people healthy, not berating them for behaviors that led to their oral disease. Recently, “Paul” wrote us a note saying “It’s very comforting knowing that you have always given me unbiased help. You…are simply (for lack of a better word) awesome. I have an incredible fear of all dentistry. But all the staff here are phenomenal. I have been treated so well here and I thank you so much.” Poor oral health negatively affects so many other areas of a person’s life. By helping decrease the disease in a patient’s mouth, our Dental Department is truly committed to caring for the health of our community.

 

Rapid growth in any industry comes at a cost. CHCFC is under heavy pressure to integrate mental health and substance abuse services and also to expand to serve almost twice our current patient base. While necessary, this growth comes at a time when there is a national shortage of primary care physicians and a heavy reliance on government grants and government payers (Medicaid/Medicare). While our health center receives a federal grant to help subsidize operations, that funding only covers 18% of our expenses.  Relying on the federal budget and on the longevity of a social safety net that is broadly, but not universally, popular is very risky. Mounting political pressures due to the cost of these two large entitlement programs is challenging all health centers to navigate through turbulent waters.  This dichotomy creates the potential for built-in financial stresses.