Filling in for Host Bruce DePuyt, Jennifer Donelan interviewed NewsTalk’s final guest, DCPCA CEO Sharon Baskerville, about the new Unity Health Care Anacostia Health Center in Ward 8, health disparities, and growing movement for health equity in the District of Columbia. Earlier in the show, Donelan previewed the start of the Maryland legislature’s special session in Annapolis. ‘Maryland Juice’ blogger David Moon and political analyst David Harrington offered thoughts on what we might expect as they try to work out a budget deal. And Ben Raby, a reporter with the Washington Capitals radio network, talked about the Caps’ roller coaster season and what lies ahead for the hockey team.

Pictured from left to right: Dr. Andrew Robie, Medical Director, Unity Health Care – Anacostia Health Center (partially in the photo); Dr. Janelle Goetcheus, Chief Clinical Officer, Unity Health Care; Michael Crawford, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Unity Health Care; Jair Lynch, President/CEO, JAIR LYNCH Development Partners; Beatriz (B.B.) Otero, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services; Dr. Mohammad Akhter, Director, DC Department of Health; DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton; Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh; Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry Jr.; Mayor Vincent Gray; At-Large Councilmember David Catania; Joanne Grossi, Regional Director, HHS-Health Resources and Services Administration; Anthony Muhammad, Chairman 8A, Advisory Neighborhood Commission; Sharon Baskerville, CEO, DCPCA; and Vincent Keane, President/CEO, Unity Health Care.

MEDIA ADVISORY: May 3, 2012

GRAND OPENING AND RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY FOR THE
UNITY HEALTH CARE – ANACOSTIA HEALTH CENTER
Scheduled for Monday, May 7th

WHO:
The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC Delegate to U.S. Congress
The Honorable Vincent C. Gray, Mayor of the District of Columbia
The Honorable Marion Barry Jr., Ward 8 Councilmember
The Honorable Anthony Muhammad, Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Chairman 8A
Joanne Grossi, HHS – Health Resources and Services Administration, Regional Director
Sharon A. Baskerville, DC Primary Care Association, CEO
Vincent A. Keane, Unity Health Care, President & CEO
Emcee Bruce Johnson, WUSA9 Weekend Anchor and Reporter

African drummers will open the program, which will culminate with the exchange of a ceremonial dollar from Unity Health Care, Inc. and a symbolic key presented by DC Primary Care Association. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton will also receive a 2012 Distinguished Community Health Advocate award from the National Association of Community Health Centers before the ribbon cutting. Tours will be given after the ceremony.

WHAT: Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

WHERE: Unity Health Care – Anacostia Health Center, 1500 Galen Street SE (near 16th & W streets)

WHEN: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM, Monday, May 7, 2012

WHY: To witness a transformation in health care services from a Quonset hut to a brand new medical home. This event celebrates a mission accomplished for DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC program, which is expanding access to primary care for the Ward 8 community.

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CONTACTS:
Karen A. Szulgit, Senior Communications Specialist, DC Primary Care Association, (202) 552-2321
Renee E. Sally, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Unity Health Care, (202) 715-7886
Najma Roberts, Public Information Officer, DC Department of Health, (202) 724-7481

Previous News Releases

Unity Health Care’s Anacostia Health Center Moves Into a New, State-of-the-Art Health Center, April 13, 2012

Medical Homes DC Expands Health Care In the District’s Most Underserved Community, March 30, 2012

Comcast Newsmakers’ Kellye Lynn Interviews DCPCA Chief Executive Officer Sharon A. Baskerville – April 18, 2012

The DC Primary Care Association is creating 100% access to quality health care and eliminate disparities in health outcomes in the District of Columbia. The first few years, DCPCA worked on expanding health coverage. DC is number one is covering children, and number two for covering adults. Once we got people covered, we realized that there wasn’t any place for them to go — so Medical Homes DC was born. Medical Homes DC includes building health information technology and the infrastructures for health centers that used to be free clinics. The Unity-Anacostia Health Center is a monument to health equity. Ward 8 is one of the most underserved in the District, and has a high proportion of poverty and chronic illness. People can stay in their neighborhood and get care. This health center replaces a Quonset hut and will shine as a jewel in that neighborhood. It’s womb to tomb care. It has 12 fully equipped dental suites, filling gaps in dental care in the District. There will be primary care and mental health services. On Monday, May 7, 2012, DCPCA will turn over the land and the facility to Unity for one dollar. DCPCA will have two groundbreakings in June. One in Ward 8, which will be run by Community of Hope and also funded through Medical Homes DC funds. And in Ward 7, we will breaking ground on our new brand new Kenilworth-Parkside Health Center. Both should be open by 2014. We will also have a smaller, but critical facility being built in Ward 5.

Upcoming Event

Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

NEWS RELEASE: April 13, 2012

UNITY HEALTH CARE’S ANACOSTIA HEALTH CENTER MOVES
INTO A NEW, STATE‐OF‐THE‐ART COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
IN ONE OF THE DISTRICT’S MOST VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES (WARD EIGHT)
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DCPCA, DOH, HHS/HRSA

Washington, DC—On Tuesday, April 17, 2012, Unity Health Care (Unity) will open its brand new, state-of‐the‐art community health center at 1500 Galen Street SE – next door to the historic Frederick Douglass Home.  This 28,000 square foot facility will expand access to primary care and triple the health center’s capacity for patient care.

Unity’s Anacostia Health Center, currently located at 1328 W Street SE, will officially close on Friday, April 13, 2012.  Services at the new facility at 1500 Galen Street SE, will resume on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.  Three Unity sites will be merged into one at the new location: Unity’s Anacostia Health Center; Unity’s Re‐Entry Health Center (located on the campus of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church, 1604 Morris Road SE); and Unity’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program.

Community health centers such as Unity’s Anacostia Health Center provide a medical home for patients who would otherwise go without care.  In 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama visited Unity to announce the Obama administration’s support for renovation and modernization projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Unity’s President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent A. Keane said, “The building of Unity’s New Anacostia Health Center is an undeniable example of the greater good that can be accomplished through partnerships and collaboration.  The support of medical homes such as our Anacostia Health Center is a long‐term investment that will insure that people who live in our most vulnerable communities receive quality health care regardless of their ability to pay.  We are grateful for our partnership with the District of Columbia Primary Care Association (DCPCA), the DC Department of Health (DOH), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Obama administration – whose efforts and support are made tangible and very visible through the successful construction of this beautiful new medical
home.”

Through a grant to DCPCA, DOH provided funds from the District’s Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to cover $15 million – 75 percent of the costs of the Anacostia project.  Unity secured the remaining 25 percent ($5 million) through ARRA funding.

On Monday, May 7, 2012, at the Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new Anacostia site, Sharon A. Baskerville, DCPCA’s Chief Executive Officer, will give ownership of the land and the new community health center facility to Vincent A. Keane, Unity’s President & CEO, for the symbolic amount of one dollar.

About Unity Health Care, Inc.
Unity Health Care is DC’s largest nonprofit health and social services organization.  In 2011, Unity served more than 93,000 individuals and families in all eight wards of the District through its network of 29 traditional and non‐traditional health care service sites.  Unity serves the most medically vulnerable DC residents – including the uninsured, working poor, homeless, and the formerly incarcerated.

About District of Columbia Primary Care Association
The DC Primary Care Association is a nonprofit health care reform organization founded in 1996 to improve the health of DC’s vulnerable residents by ensuring that they receive high quality primary health care – regardless of their ability to pay.  DCPCA represents 13 primary care providers in 49 sites across the District.  DCPCA – ACTION AND INNOVATION FOR HEALTH EQUITY.

About District of Columbia Department of Health
The mission of the DC Department of Health is to promote and protect the health, safety, and quality of life of residents, visitors, and those doing business in DC.  DOH’s responsibilities include identifying health risks; educating the public; preventing and controlling diseases, injuries, and exposure to environmental hazards; promoting effective community collaborations; and optimizing equitable access to community resources.

About Health Resources and Services Administration
The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated, or medically vulnerable.

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DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC program is made possible, in whole or in part,
by generous support from the DC Department of Health.

CONTACTS
Renee E. Sally, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Unity Health Care, (202) 715‐7886
Karen A. Szulgit, Senior Communications Specialist, DC Primary Care Association, (202) 552‐2321
Najma Roberts, Public Information Officer, DC Department of Health, (202) 724‐7481

Comcast Newsmakers’ Kellye Lynn Interviews Unity Health Care President and CEO Vincent A. Keane – April 12, 2012

In 1985, Unity Health Care, Inc. started out serving the most vulnerable people in the District of Columbia — the homeless population. Today, Unity serves a whole range of medically underserved people — including the homeless and recent immigrants, and providing health care services in DC’s correctional facilities. Unity currently serves approximately 92,000 individuals per year. On April 13, 2012, Unity Health Care-Anacostia Health Center closed down its health care operations in a temporary building — a World War II Quonset hut, and restarted operations in a beautiful, new 28,000 square foot facility in Southeast DC. The environment is much better in this new state-of-the-art health center. Unity offers direct contact between patients and doctors, and educational facilities. For instance, nurse managers are working with diabetes patients in a collective manner, providing a support system. Wellness programs will be offered and there will be a mini-gym on site, getting people engaged in their own health care management. Unity’s dental services have expanded, with several additional dental providers. The area this health center serves — in Ward 8 — is one of the highest areas in terms of risk for health care. There will be a whole suite for walk-ins at 1500 Galen Street SE (at the corner of 16th Street and Galen), or individuals can call (202) 469-4699 the day before to make an appointment. Unity will offer specialty and mental health services, too. For information on service hours, visit Unity Health Care-Anacostia Health Center online.

Upcoming Event

Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Modern Anacostia Health Center Nears Completion
By John Muller, East of the River, March 2012

This spring the galvanized steel structure at 1328 W Street SE that houses the Anacostia Health Center, known as the “W Street Clinic,” will close and reopen in a sprawling new building less than three blocks away at 1500 Galen Street SE.

Planning to offer “womb to the tomb, pediatric to geriatric” primary care, Anacostia’s new health center is “a facility as fine as any you’ll find in the city,” says Sharon A. Baskerville, chief executive officer of the DC Primary Care Association — both the organizing tour de force and developer of the site.

With a price tag of more than $20 million, funding has come from multiple sources including Medical Homes DC, a public-private initiative to build primary care centers in underserved communities, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and a share of the city’s 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. When completed, DCPCA will sell the building’s title and land to Unity Health Care for one dollar.

DCPCA heeds resident’s concerns

“Health care issues are often overlooked in development,” Baskerville, a resident of Deanwood, says. Next door to the National Park Service’s Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Baskerville lauds the Galen Street location as being “symbolic for us” due to its potential to be an “economic driver.”

Before the Galen Street property was acquired in 2005 by Four Points, LLC, its vacant three-story apartment complex attracted squatters and became a known site for transient drug users and other illicit activities. Its transformation did not happen overnight.

Aided by a planning grant, DCPCA and Unity began identifying alternative sites for the Anacostia Health Center in 2006. Over the next two years, ten different sites were identified and considered. Community members expressed their concerns about opening a health facility on the area’s historic commercial corridor. “We heeded the neighborhood’s ongoing concerns about non-retail uses on the retail strip,” said Baskerville.

Demonstrating sensitivity lost on Calvary Women’s Services, currently constructing a transitional housing facility on the 1200 block of Good Hope Road SE, DCPCA listened to residents and in October 2008 closed on the Galen Street site. Within six months the building was demolished.

To steer the new health center through its design phase, zoning and permitting process, and community approval, DCPCA and Unity worked closely together culminating in a September 2010 groundbreaking.

“The new center will help uplift the spirit of the entire neighborhood,” Anthony Muhammad, chairman of ANC8A, said. “We’ve worked with them throughout the entire process from selecting a site the community supported to agreeing on a community benefits package” that provides meeting space to local civic organizations.

Improving public health

A holdover from the 1950s, the W Street Clinic has been operated by Unity since July 2001 when the health care organization assumed control of the satellite clinics attached to then-shuttered DC General Hospital, according to Vincent A. Keane, president and CEO of Unity.

To Lauren Ratner, Bureau Chief of Primary Care for DC’s Department of Health, the W Street Clinic “was always meant to be a temporary solution and clearly does not pay proper tribute to the residents who receive their care there or the providers in practice there.”

With 26 additional exam rooms, three additional dental chairs, and an increase of nearly four times the clinical space when at full capacity by 2015, the facility on Galen Street, built by Forrester Construction Company, will house more than 80 full-time employees. With more space and staff, nearly 17,000 patients will collectively make more than 47,000 visits by 2014, according to estimates provided by Unity.

The new center will provide residents not only with an enhanced capacity for preventive and sick care, but also case management services, says Ratner.

According to Keane, Unity plans “to extend hours to include evening hours as well as the weekend. It is hoped that this center in the long term will reduce the number and necessity for emergency room visits.”

In an area of the city where residents experience rates of chronic diseases that are in some instances, diabetes for example, up to eight times higher than in the healthiest areas of the city, access to primary care services is critical to promote and elevate public health.

The modern bricks and mortar facility is a leap in the right direction, but a first step nonetheless. “[T]he next is making sure residents are accessing the services offered and that those services are high quality,” Ratner concedes.

NEWS RELEASE: March 30, 2012

MEDICAL HOMES DC EXPANDS HEALTH CARE IN
THE DISTRICT’S MOST UNDERSERVED COMMUNITY

Washington, DC—Good news for District residents living East of the Anacostia River. Right next door to the historic Frederick Douglass Home in Anacostia, a state-of-the-art community health center will expand access to primary care for the Ward 8 community. Unity Health Care-Anacostia Health Center will be opening in mid-April at 1500 Galen Street SE. A capital project of the District of Columbia Primary Care Association’s (DCPCA) Medical Homes DC Initiative, the new health center is a collaboration among DCPCA, Unity Health Care (Unity), the DC Department of Health (DOH), and the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The Anacostia Health Center will be one of the greatest success stories of DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC Initiative, a project that leverages dollars and provides support and expertise to expand primary care access in underserved areas such as Ward 8. This new 28,000 square foot facility will provide quality, patient-centered health care services in a beautiful new facility for an estimated 50,000 annual patient visits,” said DCPCA Chief Executive Officer Sharon A. Baskerville. “DCPCA is proud to be partnering with Unity and the DOH on this initiative.”

DCPCA dedicated nearly $15 million in funding obtained from DOH through the District’s Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement for project costs for the new building. Medical Homes DC provided 75 percent of the resources needed for the new health center and created the opportunity for Unity to leverage the remaining 25 percent ($5 million) through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

DCPCA used its grant from DOH to purchase the Galen Street property in 2008 and began construction two years later, in 2010. Today, on the site of what was once a condemned building and community eye-sore, stands a brand new health center. On Monday, May 7, 2012, DCPCA CEO Sharon A. Baskerville will turn over the land and the health center to Unity’s President & CEO Vincent A. Keane for the symbolic amount of one dollar at the Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. View more photographs of the new Unity-Anacostia Health Center – including those of the construction, post-demolition, demolition, ground breaking, and concept phases.

A champion and supporter from the inception of the project, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry comments, “The opening of this new health care center is long overdue! This facility will increase accessibility to health care and the level of medical care readily available to the residents of Ward 8 who deserve it. My thanks to all of those individuals – including Sharon Baskerville – who have helped to make this occasion possible.”

Unity-Anacostia Health Center is currently housed in an old, former Quonset hut in Ward 8, and provides care for approximately 23,000 patient visits annually. The center, located at 1328 W Street SE, will officially close on Friday, April 13, 2012, and services will be relocated to a new facility at 1500 Galen Street SE, near the corner of 16th and W Streets SE, on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Three sites – Unity-Anacostia Health Center; Unity’s Re-Entry Health Center, located on the campus of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church, 1604 Morris Road SE; and Unity’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) – will be consolidated at this new facility.

Medical Homes DC transforms the District’s health care safety net by leveraging DC government funds to upgrade the quality and effectiveness of many of the local primary care health centers. “We expect to improve the health of our community and reduce the cost of health care delivery in the District by dramatically increasing the number of residents who have established, and use, a medical home on an ongoing basis,” adds Baskerville.

Initiated in 2004, then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams, members of the Council of the District of Columbia, DOH, and other District agencies entered into a public-private partnership with DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC Initiative. Our key partners included: The Brookings Institution, Greater Washington Research Program; the RAND Corporation; Capital Link; and the DC Bar Association Pro Bono Program.

In total, 12 Medical Homes DC capital projects have either been completed or are in some phase of construction across nearly every ward in the District. These capital projects include new developments, expansions, replacements, and renovations – totaling $102,560,667 in projected project costs. DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC grant funds from DOH total $68,755,003 – more than 67 percent of all project costs. For more information, view DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC Capital Projects Summary.

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DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC program is made possible, in whole or in part,
by generous support from the DC Department of Health.

About DC Primary Care Association
The District of Columbia Primary Care Association is a nonprofit health care reform organization founded in 1996 to improve the health of DC’s vulnerable residents by ensuring that they receive high quality primary health care – regardless of their ability to pay. DCPCA represents 13 primary care providers in 47 sites across the District of Columbia. DCPCA – action and innovation for health equity.

About Unity Health Care
Unity Health Care, Inc. is DC’s largest nonprofit health and social services organization. In 2011, Unity served more than 93,000 individuals and families in all eight wards of the District through its network of 29 traditional and non-traditional health care service sites. Unity serves the most medically vulnerable DC residents – including the uninsured, working poor, homeless, and the formerly incarcerated.

About DC Department of Health
The mission of the District of Columbia Department of Health is to promote and protect the health, safety, and quality of life of residents, visitors, and those doing business in DC. DOH’s responsibilities include identifying health risks; educating the public; preventing and controlling diseases, injuries, and exposure to environmental hazards; promoting effective community collaborations; and optimizing equitable access to community resources.

About Health Resources and Services Administration
The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated, or medically vulnerable.

Background Information

Assessing Health and Health Care in the District of Columbia, Working Paper by the RAND Corporation, prepared for the Executive Office of the Mayor, District of Columbia, January 2008.

Assessing Health and Health Care in the District of Columbia – Phase 2 Report, Working Paper by the RAND Corporation, prepared for the Executive Office of the Mayor, District of Columbia, June 2008.

CONTACTS:
Karen A. Szulgit, Senior Communications Specialist, DC Primary Care Association, (202) 552-2321
Renee E. Sally, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Unity Health Care, (202) 715-7886
Najma Roberts, Public Information Officer, DC Department of Health, (202) 724-7481