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Shiawassee Community Health Center opens Monday
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009 10:07 AM EST
Argus-Press Photo by Cheryll Warren MARY Rivera, R.N., a staff nurse with HDI Family Health Center, helps move the clinic to its new location on State Road on Friday.
CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP - Uninsured, underinsured and Medicaid patients in Shiawassee County will be able to receive medical treatment at a new facility beginning Monday. The Shiawassee Community Health Center will open its doors at 239 State Road, Suite A, across from Meijer.
Jeffrey Hoffa, D.O., is the medical provider. Hoffa has been serving patients at Health Delivery, Inc.'s HDI Family Health Center site on North M-52 since last spring. Health Delivery Inc. opened that site just over a year ago. In its first year, that clinic saw 3,600 patients. The clinic moved this weekend to the State Road site, and will be known as Shiawassee Community Health Center. The building also houses a Memorial Healthcare Urgent Care Center and lab.
Between 2004 and 2006, Shiawassee County had the fastest growing Medicaid population in the state. In an effort to provide medical services to this population, the Health & Human Services Council of Shiawassee County sought to establish a federally qualified health center in Shiawassee County.
The first step was seeking designation from the Federal Bureau of Primary Health Care for Shiawassee County to be recognized as a medically underserved population. That happened in early 2007, paving the way to establish a local federally qualified health center.
Memorial Healthcare helped bring the vision of the clinic to reality by donating medical and office equipment. HDI Family Health Center and Shiawassee Community health Center are both part of Health Delivery, Inc. of Saginaw County, a federally qualified health center provider.
Shiawassee Community Health Center will offer both primary and prenatal care. Other services may be added in the future. Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome. The center may be reached at 729-4848.
Interviewing will take place in upcoming weeks to add a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant to the center's staff. In addition to Dr. Hoffa, the center currently has four staff members.
The new facility includes six examination rooms and shares a waiting room with Memorial Urgent Care and lab services.
“This has taken a lot of work on the part of all the partners to make this all actually come to fruition,” said Lisa Burnell, HDI director of clinical services.
“The new facility will allow us to see more people and provide more services to many people in Shiawassee County who are in need,” she said.
disappointed wrote on Feb 13, 2009 12:36 AM:
The follow-up care is non-existent.
Corporate medicine at its finest. "