Hilltown Community Health Centers celebrating 70 years of serviceDate: 2/12/2020 WORTHINGTON – The Hilltown Community Health Center’s CEO is looking forward to its 70th anniversary in 2020 after recent expansions into schools, opening a new center in Amherst, and receiving a statewide award in quality health care.
Eliza Lake, Hilltown Community Health Center’s CEO, said the Centers offers unique services to the Hilltowns that only they can provide. “We’re the only provider of medical, dental, behavioral health and optometry services anywhere in the Hilltowns,” she said, “We also run a community center with social services, including the only domestic violence victim advocacy program.”
She explained that the Centers offer service to over 9,000 residents across its five locations in Worthington, Huntington, and the recently opened center in Amherst and that they are in a unique position to provide services as a Federally Qualified Health Center. “The most important thing about being a Federally Qualified Health Center is we serve anyone regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status,” she said.
On top of the medical services the center provides, Lake explained that they are also the second largest employer in the Hilltowns.
One recent addition to the Centers’ reach in the Hilltowns is a recent expansion to the Gateway Regional School District in Huntington. She said, “Now we’ve expanded it to have all of our services on the site, so kids can get medical, dental, behavioral, and optometry. We just opened an optometry practice this year and we’re excited, over 130 kids have signed up who wouldn’t otherwise get optometry care.”
Lake explained that currently the center is looking for a new medical director as the current director is planning on stepping down to focus on clinical care. “We’re looking for a clinician so an MD or an NP who has experience with leadership in the medical field, but who will also be providing primary care to our patients,” she said.
She added that the current medical director still holds the position until they find a suitable replacement. She said, “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have leadership in the medical department, it just means we’re recruiting for a medical director.”
The center also received a statewide award for quality care from Mass Health Quality Partners. “We were one of the top performers in the state in terms of self-management of care because commercially insured patients filled out patient satisfaction surveys labeled us as one of the top performers in the state,” Lake said. “We’re really excited about winning that award here,” she added.
Lake reflected on what the Health Centers have been able to do over the course of the past 70 years and said, “Our mission is to create access to high quality, integrated health care and to promote well-being and that’s what we’ve been doing for 70 years.” She added that without the Centers, it would be difficult for Hilltown residents to find easily accessible health care. “I think given the numbers of people from each community, which is 50 percent in some communities, it’s a testament to the fact without us people would not have easy access to quality care,” she explained.
Lake added that she was looking forward to providing health care to the Hilltowns in 2020 and said, “We’re going really strong and excited to continue to expand as we see needs and figure out how to meet them. We’re looking forward to hiring more providers and moving forward with a stable and successful organization.”
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