Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | April 27, 2020 | wbjournal.com Caring for the vulnerable BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Community health centers considering furloughs as they feel the weight of the pandemic O n a good day, community health centers work with a population less likely to have health insurance and more likely to have un- derlying health issues, language barriers or other challenges. With a pandemic affecting those clients who may be more susceptible to coronavirus and everyone else, commu- nity health centers – like their acute-care hospital siblings – have been thrown into disarray. Regular check-ups have been post- poned indefinitely or pushed online, a potentially major challenge with a patient community less likely to have the technology at home to log on to tele-health appointments. A welcoming environment has necessarily been shut off to keep coronavirus risks away from other patients and workers. And a lack of regular appointments for primary care, optometry, prenatal care and other needs means these centers aren't seeing the revenue to survive long-term. "We had a big open front door that was very welcoming to walk-ins," said Noreen Johnson Smith, the vice presi- dent of development and advancement at the Family Health Center in Worces- ter. Even with workers wearing personal protective equipment, operations at the facility have been upturned. "We have an obligation to our care- givers to keep them safe while they're at work," she said. e state's 38 such community health centers care for 1 million people, the largest primary care system in Massa- chusetts, said James Hunt, the president of the Massachusetts League of Commu- nity Health Centers. "It's a sea change from the normal course of business," Hunt said of how centers have dramatically shied care so quickly. "e role of the commu- nity health center could not be more important." Shifting care Federally qualified community health centers such as the Family Health Center and the Edward M. Kennedy Commu- nity Health Center in Worcester are typically seen as the first and sometimes only place marginalized people in the community turn for health care. e population tends to be lower-income, with many who struggle with substance abuse and homelessness. While that population's needs remain, such centers now have to make as drastic of an adjustment as Saint Vincent Hos- pital, UMass Memorial Health Care and other Central Massachusetts hospitals who have shied around intensive care beds, delayed many appointments and banned nearly all visitors in an attempt to best respond to the pandemic. "A lot has changed for everyone in the world, and I think we're no different," said Stephen Kerrigan, the president and CEO of the Kennedy Community Health Center. "We're set up well to meet the moment that we're in." Both Kennedy and the Family Health Center have taken on less-severe corona- virus cases, where they can evaluate and monitor patients who self-quarantine at home. at's kept some strain off Saint Vincent and UMass Memorial, which have been augmented by more than 200 beds at a field hospital at the DCU Cen- ter in Worcester for COVID-19 patients who don't need to be in intensive care. At Kennedy, which has centers in Worcester, Framingham and Milford, the entire behavioral health operation is tak- ing place online, as is much of primary care. Much of the dental staff has been repurposed for support in the pharmacy center, particularly for helping to control a large number of people waiting for prescriptions who need to be physically spread apart, including in what's nor- mally the behavioral health waiting area. Most of its school-based health centers PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT Lou Brady, the Family Health Center of Worcester president and CEO: "We've found that our folks have been quite adaptive and have innovated on the fly."

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