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NATIONAL HEALTH CENTER WEEK CELEBRATION "Keystone Health
Center is successfully providing high-quality care
to all patients regardless of income level or
healthcare coverage during a time when the nation
is facing a major health care crisis," Ms. Cochran
said. "For more than a decade, Keystone Health Center has provided quality services to anyone seeking care, regardless of their ability to pay," Joanne Cochran, CEO and President of Keystone Health Center, said. "Our efforts have resulted in better health and an enhanced quality of life for the residents of our communities." Providing high-quality medical, obstetric, gynecological and dental health care and, when needed, social services to all Franklin County residents and surrounding areas, Keystone Health Center operates five primary care sites: Keystone Family Practice, Keystone Dental Center, Keystone Women's Care, Keystone Health Center-Path Valley satellite family practice, and the State Migrant Farmworker Administration office. Keystone also operates one year-round migrant and seasonal farmworker site in Berks County and one seasonal farmworker site in Adams County. Services to migrant farmworkers are also provided through outreach workers and contracted providers across the Commonwealth. The achievements of health centers, such as Keystone Health Center, have won notice from President Bush and the Congress. The President's Health Center Initiative calls for strengthening the health safety net and doubling the number of patients served at health centers by 2006. In addition, the Institute of Medicine has proposed tapping 40 Community Health Centers to develop national models of practice for the delivery of "stellar" primary care as part of the solution to the national health care crisis. "Sometimes I don't think the community realizes the impact we are having in the health care arena," Ms. Cochran said. "We are achieving something here in Chambersburg that is very unique. Keystone Health Center is successfully providing high-quality care to all patients regardless of income level or healthcare coverage during a time when the nation is facing a major health care crisis." Keystone Health Center's growth as an organization is a testament to the need for quality, accessible medical care in Franklin County. The health center has experienced growth from 500 patients in 1992 to more than 15,000 in 1997 to nearly 40,000 in 2001. And the number of uninsured and underinsured patients is expected to increase as more families become part of the working poor and local wages for entry-level positions remain low. In the United States, more than 500,000 newly-uninsured patients have sought care at health centers in the last three years alone. Yet, health centers continue to excel in the delivery of care, recording patient satisfaction levels near 99 percent. Health Centers contain health care costs by providing primary and preventive health services, reducing the need for more costly hospital care down the road. Studies show that Medicaid patients at health centers have a 22 percent lower rate of hospitalization than other Medicaid beneficiaries with other sources of care. With healthcare costs at record levels and with more than 41 million uninsured in the nation, Ms. Cochran affirms, "We are pleased and proud to provide crucial, life-saving preventive and primary health care to every person who comes through our doors." For more information, or to arrange an appointment at Keystone Health Center, please call 717.263.4313 or visit the website at www.keystonehealth.org. For more information regarding this news release, please contact Karen Gross at (717) 975-2148, kgross@hersheyphilbin.com, or visit the newsroom at www.hersheyphilbin.com. |
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