POSTED: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
New Start Newsletter Profile
HopeHealth, Inc. - Florence, SC
By Marcia M. Miller
Since 1991, HopeHealth, Inc. has been serving patients with HIV and AIDS supported by HRSA grants through the Ryan White programs. As an AIDS Service Organization (ASO), HopeHealth provides comprehensive primary care, specialty care, mental health and substance abuse services, case management, prevention education and counseling for a fairly stable patient load of about 1,400.
Several years ago, patients of HopeHealth began asking if their friends and family members could also receive their health care at HopeHealth. But funding restrictions did not allow HIV-negative persons to receive care. The board of directors and management staff began to consider ways to accommodate this additional population in need.
Carl Humphries, HopeHealth CEO, became aware of the national initiative to expand community health centers and realized that while two CHCs served the rural areas outside of Florence, there was no health center within the city of Florence, an urban center which has a population of over 100,000.
SCPCA's Executive Director, Lathran Woodard, met with HopeHealth's leadership to assure they were well informed about the community health center program expectations and the changes they would need to make in their organization including board composition, services provided and other legal, financial and administrative requirements.
As anyone who has been through this process knows, just writing the grant application is a lengthy and highly complex project. The new expectations represent a huge challenge to any organization, even a seasoned and successful clinic. So this was the opportunity to walk away from embarking on this path. But this group of concerned citizens already had experience stepping up to difficult but important challenges. So, after studying the possibilities and requirements for almost 18 months, HopeHealth decided to apply for a new start community health center grant.
During the needs assessment phase, they discovered that no
family practice physicians in the community were taking new
Medicaid patients and that large numbers of uninsured people used
the local hospital's ER for primary and urgent care, or let their
health problems go unattended until it was truly an
emergency.
Due to this obvious need in the community, HopeHealth was able to
obtain letters of support from the local hospital, McLeod Health
and the mental health system who had been collaborating with them
for many years.
HopeHealth received their notice of grant award last summer and was able to open their doors to all people in the community on November 1, 2007.
Almost as soon as the notice of grant award was received, more good luck followed. HopeHealth was able to hire a family physician who had recently moved to Florence with her spouse. Less than a year later, her panel of patients is already full and they are currently seeking another provider.
In just the first nine months of operating under the community health center grant, HopeHealth's number of HIV-negative patients has surpassed the number of HIV-positive patients. They are currently serving about 1,600 new patients and plan to double that when a new provider joins the team.
Another piece of good fortune came when HopeHealth was able to find a suitable building in which to expand and was able to purchase it through a state-based Jobs and Economic Development bond program. A suitable building was a particular challenge for HopeHealth since they need a different configuration of space to serve the HIV-positive population. The ASO uses three times as many ancillary staff as a traditional primary care practice due to the additional services they provide including counseling, case management and prevention education. Major renovation is currently underway which will increase exam rooms 3-4 times to accommodate the increased patient load.
When asked about his biggest challenge, CEO Carl Humphries wonders about HopeHealth's new identity within the larger community. Will there be a stigma because the clinic formerly served only HIV-positive and AIDS patients? How can they market to the larger population so potential new patients will be comfortable and the past ASO focus won't be a deterrent? So far, attracting new patients hasn't really been a problem, so this question is really an unknown issue. Ongoing management evaluation and assessment plans include doing a study of patient mix and payer mix during their first year of operating as a community health center; perhaps this will shed some light on the stigma question as well.
Humphries is proud of the organization's decision to step up to the plate and take on the overall challenge of becoming a community health center so they could serve everyone in need in their community. Attracting a provider right away and securing a building are also great accomplishments for this new start.
Humphries is grateful to the experienced CHC executive directors in South Carolina and around the country for their willingness to give great advice and assistance. His lesson learned for other new starts is to be patient, don't expect things to happen overnight and be open to learning from those who've been through it before you. If you'd like to speak with Carl Humphries, you can contact him at 843-656-0345 or at carl@hope-health.org.
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POSTED: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
New Start Newsletter Profile
HopeHealth, Inc. - Florence, SC
By Marcia M. Miller
Since 1991, HopeHealth, Inc. has been serving patients with HIV and AIDS supported by HRSA grants through the Ryan White programs. As an AIDS Service Organization (ASO), HopeHealth provides comprehensive primary care, specialty care, mental health and substance abuse services, case management, prevention education and counseling for a fairly stable patient load of about 1,400.
Several years ago, patients of HopeHealth began asking if their friends and family members could also receive their health care at HopeHealth. But funding restrictions did not allow HIV-negative persons to receive care. The board of directors and management staff began to consider ways to accommodate this additional population in need.
Carl Humphries, HopeHealth CEO, became aware of the national initiative to expand community health centers and realized that while two CHCs served the rural areas outside of Florence, there was no health center within the city of Florence, an urban center which has a population of over 100,000.
SCPCA's Executive Director, Lathran Woodard, met with HopeHealth's leadership to assure they were well informed about the community health center program expectations and the changes they would need to make in their organization including board composition, services provided and other legal, financial and administrative requirements.
As anyone who has been through this process knows, just writing the grant application is a lengthy and highly complex project. The new expectations represent a huge challenge to any organization, even a seasoned and successful clinic. So this was the opportunity to walk away from embarking on this path. But this group of concerned citizens already had experience stepping up to difficult but important challenges. So, after studying the possibilities and requirements for almost 18 months, HopeHealth decided to apply for a new start community health center grant.
During the needs assessment phase, they discovered that no
family practice physicians in the community were taking new
Medicaid patients and that large numbers of uninsured people used
the local hospital's ER for primary and urgent care, or let their
health problems go unattended until it was truly an
emergency.
Due to this obvious need in the community, HopeHealth was able to
obtain letters of support from the local hospital, McLeod Health
and the mental health system who had been collaborating with them
for many years.
HopeHealth received their notice of grant award last summer and was able to open their doors to all people in the community on November 1, 2007.
Almost as soon as the notice of grant award was received, more good luck followed. HopeHealth was able to hire a family physician who had recently moved to Florence with her spouse. Less than a year later, her panel of patients is already full and they are currently seeking another provider.
In just the first nine months of operating under the community health center grant, HopeHealth's number of HIV-negative patients has surpassed the number of HIV-positive patients. They are currently serving about 1,600 new patients and plan to double that when a new provider joins the team.
Another piece of good fortune came when HopeHealth was able to find a suitable building in which to expand and was able to purchase it through a state-based Jobs and Economic Development bond program. A suitable building was a particular challenge for HopeHealth since they need a different configuration of space to serve the HIV-positive population. The ASO uses three times as many ancillary staff as a traditional primary care practice due to the additional services they provide including counseling, case management and prevention education. Major renovation is currently underway which will increase exam rooms 3-4 times to accommodate the increased patient load.
When asked about his biggest challenge, CEO Carl Humphries wonders about HopeHealth's new identity within the larger community. Will there be a stigma because the clinic formerly served only HIV-positive and AIDS patients? How can they market to the larger population so potential new patients will be comfortable and the past ASO focus won't be a deterrent? So far, attracting new patients hasn't really been a problem, so this question is really an unknown issue. Ongoing management evaluation and assessment plans include doing a study of patient mix and payer mix during their first year of operating as a community health center; perhaps this will shed some light on the stigma question as well.
Humphries is proud of the organization's decision to step up to the plate and take on the overall challenge of becoming a community health center so they could serve everyone in need in their community. Attracting a provider right away and securing a building are also great accomplishments for this new start.
Humphries is grateful to the experienced CHC executive directors in South Carolina and around the country for their willingness to give great advice and assistance. His lesson learned for other new starts is to be patient, don't expect things to happen overnight and be open to learning from those who've been through it before you. If you'd like to speak with Carl Humphries, you can contact him at 843-656-0345 or at carl@hope-health.org.
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