AUBURN, NY | by Keith Cuttler | August 19, 2019
Original article can be found at: https://auburnpub.com/
For years, community health centers across the country have come together to celebrate National Health Center Week (NHCW). As a federally qualified health center (FQHC), East Hill Family Medical participated in this annual celebration earlier this August.
That’s already two abbreviations in the first paragraph. If you haven’t heard of a FQHC or NHCW and are unsure of what a community health center is, you’re not alone. But just because you haven’t heard the name doesn’t mean that you haven’t visited one in the past. In fact, millions of patients are served by community health centers like East Hill Family Medical nationwide.
A community health center has to meet four criteria:
• It must be located in an area of high need;
• Offer a comprehensive set of services (for example, East Hill Family Medical offers adult medicine, dental and pediatric services, to name a few);
• Be open to everyone;
• And its board of directors must include patients and their families.
FQHCs aim to be accessible to patients by being open during nontraditional hours in the evenings and weekend hours, and accept all those who need care, regardless of ability to pay.
Community health centers are an important part of our nation’s health care system and have a special connection to sparsely populated areas like those found in Cayuga County and upstate New York. For example, the FQHCs in the upstate area have numerous sites that serve many patients. Nationwide, community health centers like East Hill Family Medical serve one in five rural residents and 1 million agricultural workers.
From an economic standpoint, community health centers benefit the regions they serve on two fronts: adding jobs and saving money by providing a variety of services and collaborating with community partners. Community health centers have created hundreds of full-time equivalent jobs in the upstate area and provide their patients with early intervention and comprehensive care that could otherwise lead to avoidable visits to the emergency department and preventable hospitalizations. This adds up to a savings of $24 billion for our nation’s health care system.
For these reasons, we feel the need to celebrate our East Hill Family Medical employees and the hard work that they do for our patients. On Aug. 7, all staff were treated to lunch catered by Scratch Farmhouse and chocolates from Gretchen’s Confections. City, county and state representatives were on hand to present proclamations and speak. Area businesses Family Video, Michael’s Restaurant, Muldoon Dry Cleaners, Owasco Paddles, Parker’s Grille & Tap House, Walgreens, the Auburn YMCA-WEIU, Pepper’s Discount Liquor, Smiley’s Town and Country, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, United Healthcare, HealtheConnections, Octane Social House and the Auburn Holiday Inn donated to our luncheon by providing items for giveaways and staff raffles. We would like to thank everyone who attended or donated for making this a wonderful afternoon for our employees.
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