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KEYSTONE HEALTH CENTER JOINS NATIONAL HEALTH CENTER WEEK CELEBRATIONS TO HONOR THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
(Chambersburg, PA) -- In observance of National Health Center Week, August 6-12, 2006, Keystone Health Center in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, is joining with other non-profit Community Health Centers across America in recognizing the contributions of their volunteer boards of directors. The celebrations for National Health Center Week are highlighting one of the unique characteristics of Community Health Centers – each local health center is owned and directed by the very people it serves through its volunteer board of directors, the majority of whom must be patients of the Health Center. No two health centers are alike in America, but they cannot receive federal support without the establishment of a patient-majority board. Each board shapes the delivery of health care to its own community, and determines the range of affordable services the health center will provide. “Health Centers have compiled a solid record of success of caring for the medically underserved and uninsured,” said Joanne Cochran, President and CEO of Keystone Health Center. “Community board members have played a key role in establishing that record of achievement because they effectively identify local public health needs and aggressively target those needs with high quality preventive care that is affordable and accessible.” Keystone is the only Community Health Center serving Franklin County and surrounding areas. Following the mandate of the federal Health Center program Keystone has continually expanded to meet the needs of the uninsured and underinsured in our community. For example, to meet the demand for services Keystone recently moved several of its practices to larger facilities and hired additional pediatricians and cardiologists and an additional obstetrician/gynecologist and certified nurse midwife. “We are very grateful to Keystone’s community board members,” said Cochran. “They are our eyes and ears in helping us understand the public health needs of the people we serve.” One of the current needs Keystone’s board has identified is ensuring that all children receive the health care they need. While no one is turned away from a Community Health Center, regardless of their insurance status or their ability to pay, Keystone has found that many children are not getting the health care they need. Cochran explained, “Children usually can’t take themselves to the doctor; they have to rely on their parents. But our surveys found that many parents can’t take off work to get their kids to the doctor or there are other children in the family who can’t be left alone while the parent takes another child to the doctor. This is a huge problem, so Keystone is working with the Chambersburg school district and others in the community to develop some type of school-based health center program that would send our providers to the schools.” Keystone Health Center has been serving the local community for 20 years and is planning a celebration next month to honor its current and past board members for their support. Keystone Health Center provides high-quality family medicine, internal medicine, pediatric, obstetric, gynecological, cardiac, behavioral, and dental health care and, when needed, social services to underserved and vulnerable populations as well as the entire community. Keystone now operates five full-time primary care practices—Keystone Family/Internal Medicine, Keystone Behavioral Health, Keystone Dental Care, Keystone Women's Care, and Franklin County Pediatrics—and one full-time specialty practice, the Franklin County Heart Center. Keystone continues to provide care to migrant farmworkers and now operates one year-round migrant and seasonal farmworker site in Berks County, one seasonal farmworker site in Adams County, and provides services to migrant farmworkers across the Commonwealth through outreach workers and contracted providers. The health center offers several special programs: the Keystone Pharmacy Program that may allow patients to purchase prescription drugs at discounted prices, the Healthy Beginnings Plus program that provides free care to pregnant women on Medical Assistance, the HIV/AIDS Program that provides prevention education, case management and support services as well as free, confidential HIV testing, and the Women’s Screening Program that offers low-cost screening to assess the risk factors for heart disease in women age 40 and older. For more information regarding Keystone Health Center, visit the website at www.keystonehealth.org. For more information regarding this news release, contact Dawn Stinson at (717) 263-2230 x 6002.
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