Five years ago, twenty community health centers formed the West Virginia Primary Care Network to take advantage of shared technology and business resources to overcome the fragmentation of our rural health care delivery system. The purpose of our collaboration is to improve the health status of the communities served by these organizations. The Network member sites collectively provide services to over 100,000 patients in 28 of West Virginia's 55 counties each year, with nearly 400,000 patient encounters annually. Our member health centers provided over $40 million in health care services last year, with 70% of this care to Medicare, Medicaid and uninsured patients.
According to national studies, community health centers
provide a cost-effective source of health care to
traditionally under-served rural areas. These studies
found that, for Medicaid patients treated in community
health centers:
° they were 22% less likely to be hospitalized
for a potentially avoidable condition than those treated
elsewhere (Medical Care, Vol. 39, No 6, 2001).
° the cost of care was 30-34% less than for those
receiving care elsewhere;
° the cost for medications was 26-40% lower;
° the cost for diabetic care was 35% lower;
° the cost of asthmatic care was 20% lower (Center
for Health Policy Studies, Final Report, November
1994); and
° these patients were 19% less likely to use the
ER (ACSC II, 2003)
The purpose of the Network is to build upon the long-tradition
of excellence in rural family health care for which
the members of the Network have been recognized and
to:
° coordinate, integrate and develop resources
to facilitate growth of member health centers, thereby
increasing access to care for underserved areas;
° provide training and leadership to encourage
excellence in the delivery of comprehensive community
and preventive health care; and
° expand the clinical ability of member health
centers to meet the health care needs of the communities
they serve, including focused disease management,
care coordination, patient self-management and education
services.
We recently changed our name to the Community Health Network of West Virginia to better reflect our role in integrating services of a number of community health resources. We will continue to work closely with our member organizations to develop strategic relationships with other organizations to strengthen our collective ability to improve the health of our communities.
The Network is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of one representative from each participating health center and by an Executive Committee consisting of five members elected by the Board. The operations of the Network are managed by the Chief Executive Office and Network staff. The staff reports to the CEO and the CEO reports to the Executive Committee and Board.