The Faith Health Center in Jackson, a nonprofit clinic serving hundreds of low-income and uninsured individuals, almost closed its doors last year as funding dried up.
But Wednesday brought good news for the center and its customers: Faith Health Center will soon fold into Memphis-based Christ Community Health Services, becoming the larger organization's first clinic outside of Shelby County.
The move will allow the center to stay open, albeit under a different name and management, and later expand its services to include dental, mental health and social services.
"We have been eagerly waiting word this week," full-time Faith Health Center volunteer Sara Larsen said. "It's a wonderful blessing. A relief, and a wonderful blessing."
The agreement was finalized Wednesday morning after the clinic received news that it won a federal grant to become a new access point for Christ Community Health Services.
The deal hinged on winning the grant, which was a collaboration between West Tennessee Healthcare and Christ Community Health Services with support from Rep. David Kustoff.
The New Access Point grant from the Bureau of Primary Health Care will provide $650,000 to the Jackson clinic, which CCHS plans to open by late December.
Current patients need not be concerned, the Larsens said. The Faith Health Center will close on Nov. 26 and patient care may be interrupted for a short period of time as work is done to the facility, but when it reopens in December, the staff and quality of care will be the same.We'll still be here," Sara Larsen said. "We're not going away, we're just getting better."
CCHS CEO Shantelle Leatherwood said the Faith Health Center first reached out to the Memphis group about a year ago seeking help and guidance from the larger, federally-qualified health center. At that point, expanding CCHS's services outside of Shelby County "wasn't on the radar," Leatherwood said.
The Faith Health Center serves Madison County's most medically under-served residents. About 50% of their patients are uninsured, David Larsen said, and about 32% of residents in their service area are living 200% below the federal poverty guidelines.
The center charged uninsured patients on a sliding-scale fee based on those federal guidelines, but didn't bring in enough to cover the costs of running the practice. David and Sara have not taken any salary for the past year, and the small staff was forced to take cuts in hours and pay during lean times.
When the federal government released its New Access Point grant opportunities in January, Leatherwood began looking into the possibility of folding the smaller clinic into CCHS.
She found that there was no federally qualified health center in Madison County, and some Madison County residents were actually travelling to Memphis to get healthcare services from CCHS.
"At that point in time, I thought, 'Oh wow, there's a great need in Jackson,'" Leatherwood said.
Plans for growth
David and Sara Larsen said the Faith Health Center was interested in becoming a federally qualified health center for a while, but the requirements were too involved and costly for the small clinic to accomplish alone.
Becoming part of CCHS and receiving the New Access Point grant opens the doors to many more opportunities, David Larsen said.
"Dreams that we have, they have goals for," he explained.
The East Jackson center will be CCHS's ninth location. The organization is currently the largest provider for medically under-served patients in Shelby County, serving more than 57,000 patients each year. CCHS offers adult and pediatric primary care, obstetric and gynecological care, dental services, behavioral health services and several pharmacies.
Within the first two years, the East Jackson health center will continue to offer primary healthcare while adding behavioral health services via tele-health during the first year. CCHS plans to recruit on-site behavioral health staff soon after.
About $150,000 in grant funds will be used to outsource dental services during the clinic's first year, but they hope to have in-house dental by July. The clinic will also add care managers and referral staff to track patients' emergency room use and coordinate with primary care providers.
West Tennessee Healthcare will fund the clinic's operations outside of the grant funds for the first four years, Leatherwood said. In return, CCHS will work with the hospital to help reduce the number of people using the hospital's emergency department for primary care needs. They will also share office space in the clinic's facilities with WTH chronic care managers.
“We are very excited that Christ Community Health Services has received a grant to establish a satellite clinic here in Jackson," Darrell King, vice president of West Tennessee Medical Group, said in a statement. “We are confident they will build on the foundation established by Faith Health Center and West Tennessee Healthcare previously in the East Jackson community. We look forward to working with them as we all strive to improve healthcare in the region.”
Leatherwood, David Larsen and Sara Larsen expressed optimism for the transition and said a shared emphasis on faith and care makes the move a good fit for everyone.
"My hope and vision for Christ Community in the future is that the population surrounding us would see us as a community asset," Leatherwood said. "If they come into our facilities, they know that we're going to do what we can to meet their holistic needs, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and emotionally."
Reach Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephens@jacksonsun.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731.