Health center to cater to underserved

Slidell Memorial Hospital and the St. Charles Community Health Center have joined forces to open the first Federally Qualified Health Center in the parish.

Called the St. Tammany Community Health Center, it will open July 1 on the SMH campus at 1340 14th St. The facility will be open to Medicaid and sliding scale pediatric patients, as well as those participating in the Women, Infants and Children program.

The building currently houses the SMH Pediatric Clinic, which has offered services to WIC clients through a grant received shortly after Hurricane Katrina. The grant was due to expire, however, and with additional budget cuts looming, the hospital was searching for ways to continue those services.

The St. Charles center has been in place for about six years. According to St. Charles Community Health Center CEO Mark Keiser, rural public health units across the state were in danger of closing at the time. The St. Charles Parish government worked with the state and came up with a strategy for providing services the at-risk population, and the result was the establishment of the center.

St. Tammany had previously partnered with Volunteers of America in an attempt to establish an FQHC in 2006. When that failed they tried again with the Covington Food Bank, which runs a small dental clinic in addition to helping feed those in need. They next approached Baptist Community Ministries.

“They found out another way to do it is to affiliate with an existing FQHC,” said Keiser. “Since we had previously worked with Baptist Community Ministries on hurricane relief in other parishes, they helped the agencies in St. Tammany connect with us.”

The center is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and will assume the primary health care of approximately 2,300 Medicaid patients and other patients currently seen in the pediatric practice operating at the site. In addition, approximately 3,000 clients in the WIC program will be served.

According to a fact sheet produced by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FQHCs are seen as “safety net” providers, whose purpose is to enhance the provision of primary care services in underserved urban and rural communities. In addition to community health centers, these facilities include public housing units, outpatient health programs funded by the Indian Health Service, and programs serving migrant workers and the homeless.

“Even having a satellite location in the community can make such a difference,” said John Tobin, director of social services and the Community Action Agency for St. Tammany Parish. “There are just so many people in need, and the parish government just wasn’t going to give up on this.”

A formal change in the scope application process approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, also helped make the center possible. The health center plans to expand its services beyond pediatrics to include primary care doctors and dental care in the future.

Parish spokeswoman Suzanne Parsons-Stymiest said the parish was able to qualify for a number of federal grants based on continuously increasing population since Hurricane Katrina. She said the plan is to eventually open a second community health center location on the western side of the parish.

Dr. Madhuri Dixit, who has worked at the SMH Pediatric Clinic since 1998, will be the physician on staff at the St. Tammany Community Health Center.

In the United States, 20 percent of Americans don’t have a family doctor, according to a Scripps Howard News Service report. As a result, millions of Americans receive less comprehensive care, less preventive care, and seek treatment only when an illness has become more advanced and severe.

“The St. Tammany Community Health Center will provide greater access to pediatric health care initially and primary care ultimately for the underserved in the community,” said Bob Hawley, CEO of Slidell Memorial Hospital. “This initiative is an important step in creating a healthier community by providing care that treats conditions proactively and lowers healthcare costs. This project benefits everyone in the community.”

Parish President Kevin Davis praised the cooperation of both SMH and the St. Charles center in opening the facility.

“This health center is only possible through the generous and cooperative efforts of St. Charles Parish Community Health Center, who permitted this extension of federal health services to St. Tammany, along with the support of Slidell Memorial Hospital,” said Davis.

St. Charles Community Health Center currently operates sites in Luling, Kenner and Norco that provide primary care and some specialty services in their communities. For more information go to www.stcchc.org. Slidell Memorial Hospital serves as a primary healthcare resource for families in St. Tammany Parish; Pearl River County, Miss.; and the greater Mississippi Gulf Coast region. It is located online at www.slidellmemorial .org.