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Neighborhood Health to share mobile unit, and reach more Buffalo schoolchildren

Neighborhood Health to share mobile unit, and reach more Buffalo schoolchildren

By  – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
Jan 16, 2019, 8:03am EST

Neighborhood Health Center filed plans to spend $8,000 to launch a mobile health unit as an extension clinic. But in a unique twist, the organization isn’t starting something new, but instead using existing, excess capacity at a unit owned by another health provider.

The agency has been approved by federal officials at the Bureau of Primary Health Care to sub-lease an existing van owned by Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, which it will use to provide primary care services to low-income children at nine Buffalo Public Schools.

The van, licensed as an Article 28 diagnostic and treatment center, is only used part-time by Planned Parenthood. Neighborhood Health will change out the exterior signage on the days it schedules to use the vehicle.

“That’s what’s so cool and unique about this,” said Joanne Haefner, CEO at Neighborhood Health, a federally qualified health center. “How many times are there facilities with unused capacity? It’s a really good opportunity for us to utilize that. That’s good for health care economics.”

Operating on a budget of $26 million, Neighborhood Health is one of the region’s largest public health clinics, with four locations that saw 25,000 patients in 2018.

Funding for equipping the vehicle and providing services comes from Say Yes Buffalo and the John R. Oishei Foundation through the Health in Motion program. Neighborhood Health first partnered with Say Yes in 2017 on the initiative, which included two mobile health clinics that visit area schools. The other is owned by the Community Health Center of Buffalo.

The program helps Buffalo health care providers reach underserved populations and improve students’ health and improve their chances at graduation — a Say Yes goal.

The project also requires approval by the state Department of Health.

“It’s groundbreaking for the state to do this: It’s one of the first facilities being used at different times by different organizations,” Haefner said.

Haefner is hoping for approval soon to allow the mobile unit to begin school visits in February.

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