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Worcester health center transforms abandoned space
September 08, 2014
Optometry intern
Urvashi Patel works in a new exam room Monday in the optometry
department in the newly expanded Family Health Center in Worcester.
(T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)
WORCESTER — When it came time to expand the Family Health Center of
Worcester, clinic leaders found the solution right beneath their feet.
Two years and $8 million later, health care officials, city
leaders, legislators and representatives of local nonprofit groups
helped cut the ribbon on the ground floor of the former Worcester City
Hospital building at 26 Queen St., in what was once a dusty, abandoned
storage area below the space the health center was already leasing.
"We toured many dusty places in the city, looking for a place to
grow," said Frances M. Anthes, president and chief executive officer of
the Family Health Center. "The committee determined they're already
here in this building, they need to grow."
The center provides primary health care and social services to
low-income or uninsured patients. It was founded in 1974 to serve Main
South and has been located on Queen Street since City Hospital closed in
1991, occupying the first through third floors.
It also serves as a training facility for students from the
University of Massachusetts Medical School, which owns the building, and
from MCPHS University in Worcester.
Growing into the basement, where services were phased in
starting in December, it opened 20 new examination rooms, which will
allow the center to serve thousands of additional patients.
Ms. Anthes said in 2011, there were 4,800 names on the waiting
list for a primary care physician at the center. Ms. Anthes said 45
percent of the center's patients are served in a language other than
English, with 37 languages represented.
Renovations on the first floor included additions to the
pharmacy — built in the 1990s to fill an expected 200 prescriptions per
day, but now handling 500 to 900 daily — and the clinic's first
optometry lab, also a partnership with MCPHS. Full-time service for eye
care began last week; an optical shop, allowing patients to purchase
their prescription glasses in-house, will open in a couple months' time.
Charles F. Monahan Jr., president of MCPHS University, said his
school's Worcester campus has benefited from being able to send its
pharmacy and health services students to serve their clinical rotations
at the Family Health Center of Worcester.
He called the city's community health centers, including the
Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center, "one of the major reasons
we're in Worcester." The two centers, combined, serve about one-third of
Worcester's population, he said.
Mr. Monahan has a personal connection to the Family Health
Center as well. Before he became a university president, his family
business, Monahan Pharmacy, filled prescriptions from the Family Health
Center.
As part of the renovation, IT and medical records offices were
moved to the ground floor, opening 2,690 square feet on the third floor
to expand the dental clinic by 40 percent. The final phase of the
project will update the flooring, lighting and furnishings of otherwise
unchanged rooms and hallways on the first, second and third floors.
Congressman James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, noted that funding
for the expansion came from a variety of sources, including private
fundraising, nonprofit donors and federal funds from the controversial
federal health care law known as Obamacare.
"Because of the collaboration, everyone has access to excellent
care," Mr. McGovern said. "Yes, it's not perfect, but what you see here
is a tangible benefit of the Affordable Care Act."
Other speakers at the ribbon-cutting event included City Manager
Edward M. Augustus, Timothy J. Garvin of the United Way, James W. Hunt
Jr. of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and National
Association of Community Health Centers, Dr. Daniel Lasser of UMass
Medical School, and Janice B. Yost of the Health Foundation of Central
Massachusetts.
Michael Ballway
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
2014 News
