Published July 2005
CHC
plans growth
to meet health-care needs
By
Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor
For those facing
limited access to health care, Community Health Center of Snohomish County
is a safety net for primary-care services, a net that is facing more and
more pressure as demand for its services grows, an organization administrator
said.
From 1994 to 2004,
the private, nonprofit health-care provider has seen patient numbers increase
by more than 300 percent, from 10,000 to 31,000, and its network of medical
and dental clinics "continue to have a flood of new patients," Executive
Director Ken Green said.
"At the Lynnwood
clinic, 30 to 50 new patients are trying to get into the system a week,"
Green said, noting that 96 percent of CHC's patients have a household
income below federal poverty guidelines and that 83 percent of patients
are uninsured or participate in Medicaid.
To better serve the
growing needs of the county, CHC in early 2004 finalized its first-ever
comprehensive plan, with a focus on bolstering its infrastructure and
expanding both its facilities and services.
Community
Health Center of Snohomish County
Administration
offices
Address: 5929 Evergreen Way, Second floor, Everett, WA 98203
Phone: 425-258-2797
Facilities
Broadway Medical Clinic, 1410 Broadway, Everett, WA 98201
Evergreen Way
Medical Clinic, 8609 Evergreen Way, Everett, WA 98208
Lynnwood Medical
Clinic, 4111 194th St. SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036
Colby Dental
Clinic, 2722 Colby Ave., Suite 318, Everett, WA 98201
Lynnwood Dental
Clinic, 4111 194th St. SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036
Broadway Pharmacy,
1430 Broadway, Everett, WA 98201
Lynnwood Pharmacy,
4111 194th St. SW, Suite 204, Lynnwood, WA 98036
By the numbers
Clinicians on staff: 20 medical clinicians, with capacity for 22,
and nine dental clinicians
CHC's 2004 revenues:
$18.2 million
CHC's 2004 expenses:
$13.2 million
Insurance status
of patients for 2004:
Medicaid: 62 percent
Uninsured: 21 percent
Basic Health: 8 percent
Medicare: 6 percent
Other: 3 percent
|
Among the initiatives
the organization has taken on is implementation of an electronic health
record system, which will be active this fall and enable its clinicians
to more easily access patient health information through terminals set
up in every exam room, Green said.
CHC also has joined
with five other community health centers in the region to form Practice
Technology Services Organization of Washington. The venture, which enables
the health-care providers to standardize data on a shared system, is expected
to lead to development and application of best clinical practices and
patient safety standards, Green said.
"It was incorporated
last May, and the first community health center went live in January,"
Green said, noting that the six members, including four centers in Seattle,
one in Bremerton and CHC of Snohomish County, serve a combined 150,000
patients throughout the Puget Sound region.
Beefing up technological
infrastructure is one way to improve CHC's ability to provide needed medical
and dental services, but it is just part of the equation. The other part
expanding its geographical reach and its health-care offerings
is now under consideration.
Currently, the organization
operates three medical clinics, two dental clinics and two pharmacies
in the Everett and Lynnwood area. The expansion plan now under consideration
is three-pronged and includes:
- Relocating the
medical clinic at 8609 Evergreen Way in Everett to a new, larger building
that would be constructed on a 2-acre parcel of land off 112th Street
SE in south Everett.
- Setting up another
health-care clinic in south county, preferably in the Edmonds/Mountlake
Terrace area.
- Setting up a
health-care clinic in the Monroe area.
CHC has acquired
the land needed for the new south Everett clinic, thanks in part to city
of Everett Community Development Block Grant funds, Green said, adding
that design plans should be completed during the summer, with construction
of the facility expected to begin next spring.
"It will nearly double
the size of the clinic, and we'll probably add dental offices and a pharmacy,"
he said. "We're talking with Sea Mar about bringing in mental health services."
CHC also has been
in talks with Sea Mar a community health center that operates mental,
dental and behavior health clinics throughout Western Washington
about setting up a shared-services clinic model for the Monroe clinic,
Green said.
"It's really exciting.
We have a really good relationship with them. It's been very collaborative,"
he said.
A time line for the
proposed Monroe site has not been set, but likely would follow establishment
of the new south-county clinic, which Green said he would like to see
up and running, possibly in leased space, by early 2006.
"We've been shoehorning
money left and right" to pay for the projects, he said, noting that CHC
also is looking at the issuing of low-interest bonds.
As for increasing
its services, the organization has added a full-time behavior health specialist
at each of its medical clinics and is in the process of hiring a nutritionist
to serve the entire system. Talks also are under way with Bastyr University
about the possibility of adding some naturopathic elements into the practices,
Green said.
"Bastyr has been
working with Community Health Centers of King County, so we have a model
to work off of. We're about a year from making that a reality," said Green,
who took the helm of CHC three years ago with a very firm goal in mind,
that of offering top-notch, patient-focused care.
"We don't want to
be the practice of last resort. We want to be the practice of choice,"
he said.
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