2012 News

Family Health Center to receive $5 million grant

May 03, 2012

By Melissa McKeon
(c) Worcester Telegram & Gazette
May 3, 2012

WORCESTER — A $1.5 million optometry clinic that will fill a gap in the health care offerings of the Family Health Center of Worcester will begin operations next summer with students from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ new School of Optometry. 

The clinic is part of a $5 million renovation of the Family Health Center that will include a fourth primary care team center and 16 exam rooms, as well as space for the medical records, accounting and IT functions that will free up more space elsewhere in the facility in patient-care areas of the clinic, which serves 30,000 patients annually.

The funds granted to the Family Health Center are part of the federal Affordable Care Act and are the maximum available under the act, as well as the largest grant the Family Health Center has ever received, according to U.S. Rep James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, who attended a news conference at the Family Health Center today.

“One of our board members said it’s like winning the lottery,” said the Rev. Walter R. Tilleman, chairman of the Family Health Center’s board of directors.

But Christie Hager, federal Health and Human Services New England regional director, said there was no luck about it; it was because of the hard work of local, state and federal officials who scouted out the space, wrote the grant requesting the funds and forged a collaboration between UMass Memorial Health Care, owners of the property; the Family Health Center and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. 

The more than 18,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of the former Worcester City Hospital building will be renovated to include the state-of-the-art optometry clinic where students will train and do clinical rotations.

Staffing the optometry clinic with Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences students is a natural fit, said the college’s CEO, F. Charles Monahan Jr. 

The Family Health Center has always been a teaching site, not just for MCPHS. 
Family medicine, dental and nurse practitioner students from UMass Medical School, UMass Graduate School of Nursing and Lutheran Medical Center already learn patient care at the Family Health Center.

The legacy of Worcester City Hospital providing community care is one Frances M. Anthes, president of the Family Health Center, said the center is keenly aware of, and it’s a legacy fulfilled by the community health center model.

“We’re guided by four basic principles,” Ms. Anthes said. “We have to be located in the neighborhood where people need us, we have to provide comprehensive health care, we have to provide care regardless of their ability to pay, and 51 percent of the people on our board of directors have to be patients. That means the people who are making the decision are actively here every day receiving care.”

Several patients and patient-board members stepped to the podium to share their experiences at the center, including Luisa Corral, cradling her infant son, 3-week-old Iker, delivered by doctors from the center.

“I was brand new (to Worcester) when I walked into the clinic,” Ms. Corral said. “I have never had such support.”

Juliana Da Silva praised the care she received in her own language, and the understanding of the staff in helping her and all patients not proficient in English.
As part of the clinic’s mission, it provides translators or staff members who are proficient in 35 languages.

The Family Health Center is part of Massachusetts’ dense concentration of family health centers, more than 50 across the state, out of more than 1,250 nationwide.
Optometry will be added to the clinic offerings, which include primary care, dental care, social services, maternal and child health, mammography, HIV/AIDS care, a pharmacy and laboratory services, at 26 Queen St. and at a satellite site and several public school clinics.

The renovation is scheduled for completion in July 2013.

2012 News