Kiera Morgan
Aug 5, 20192 min
Lincoln Community Health Center (LCHC) will be celebrating our patients and staff to mark National Health Center Week 2019 from August 4th-10th. LCHC will also be presenting at the Lincoln County Board of Commissioner’s meeting on August 7th, 2019. LCHC provides a
variety of health services in Lincoln City, Newport, and at four school-based
health centers.
These events are part of a national campaign to increase awareness of the
ways health centers are providing a!ordable health care in communities. A
host of NHCW events that celebrate the ways that health centers are
“Rooted in Communities” are scheduled across the country, including health
fairs, visits by Members of Congress and state o!icials to local health
centers, press conferences, back-to-school drives, community breakfasts,
patient appreciation events, free health screenings and much more.
Lincoln Community Health Center is part of a nationwide network of locally-
run health centers that serve more than 28 million people nationwide. They
have physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and behavioral health specialists
who provide a full spectrum of medical care.
Community Health Centers are on the front lines of national public health challenges – whether caring for veterans, providing opioid treatment, or responding to natural disasters. They are also a lifeline in remote and underserved communities where the nearest
doctor or hospital can be as far as 50 miles or more away. Nearly half of
health centers (44 percent) are located in rural communities.
Highlights of health center accomplishments include:
• Reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and unnecessary visits to the
emergency room;
• Total cost of care per patient with Medicare is up to 30% lower for
patients choosing to use health centers;
• Treating patients for a fraction of the average cost of one emergency
room visit;
• Serving more than one in six Medicaid beneDciaries for less than
two percent of the national Medicaid budget;
• Full-spectrum care for over 8 million children in the U.S;
• Lowering the cost of children’s primary care by approximately 35
percent; and
• Serving over 355,000 veterans throughout the country.
This year’s NHCW 2019 will highlight how health centers are at the forefront
of a nationwide shift in addressing environmental and social factors as an
integral part of primary care, reaching beyond the walls of conventional
medicine to address the factors that may cause sickness, such as lack of
nutrition, mental illness, homelessness and substance use disorders.
Community Health Centers’ success in managing chronic disease in medically
vulnerable communities has helped reduce health care costs for American
taxpayers. Each day of NHCW 2019 is dedicated to a particular focus area. To learn
more and view a listing of events please visit: www.healthcenterweek.or