By Liz Hayes, The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.
Jul. 26–State Sen. Sean Logan said he is both pleased and discouraged to learn the Community Health Clinic in New Kensington was visited 17,000 times last year.
The Plum Democrat said the efforts of the expanding clinic are impressive, but it spotlights the need for better health care.
“This is a huge problem,” Logan said. “A very expensive problem.”
Logan joined Dr. Calvin B. Johnson, the state secretary of health; state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park; and state Rep. John Pallone, D-New Kensington, on Friday to celebrate the forthcoming availability of dental services at the Fourth Avenue clinic.
Clinic board member Bill Hall said the clinic should open in early August. It features seven exam rooms plus laboratory space and will be staffed by at least one full-time dentist plus a roster of 38 volunteers from the Alle-Kiski Dental Society.
Executive Director Josephine Guy estimated that about half of the clinic’s medical patients also have dental problems.
“It’s a part of health care that is so often neglected,” said Dr. Johnson. “Oral health care is so critical to our overall health.”
The clinic also is adding eye care to its array of services and soon hopes to provide psychiatric care.
Guy and Hall said the clinic is working to cover all the health needs of the Alle-Kiski Valley. Hall said at least half the board members must be clinic patients, which allows directors to better understand the community’s needs.
Hall said the recent move to the 900 block of Fourth Avenue in the former Hart’s department store offers considerably more space than the clinic had in its former office on Seventh Street.
“It’s amazing to see this place and know how far it’s come,” said Myra Guin, president of the clinic board.
The cheerful and spacious offices and exam rooms are painted blue and white, and many are decorated with Hall’s photography of the region.
The Community Health Clinic serves the Alle-Kiski Valley’s four counties and has been in operation since 1971, Guy said.
The clinic provides services on a sliding scale depending on a patient’s ability to pay. Although it meets all the criteria for a Federally Qualified Health Center, officials still are waiting for official designation that will allow them to receive federal funding.
“Most of our patients are uninsured,” Guy said. “Ninety-eight percent earn less than $15,000 a year.”
Officials object to the stereotype that people don’t have quality health insurance because they don’t work.
Johnson said 70 percent of the estimated 800,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians have jobs — often more than one.
Pallone said the clinic is what helps maintain the community’s vitality.
“If (the clinic) was not here,” Johnson said, “there would be a lot of people with no options for their health care. You cannot grow a community when your population is not healthy.”
“Health is the reason many are poor,” Hall said of the clinic’s patients. “If we can get them healthy, we can turn their lives around.”
Liz Hayes can be reached at [email protected] or 724-226-4680.
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