By Nevada Health Centers staff
Saturday, August 14, 2021
The work of healthcare professionals was brought to the forefront of the news due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most are familiar with hospitals or clinics, but community health centers may be a best-kept secret with which many are unfamiliar.
Community health centers provide access to primary and preventive healthcare services. They often serve those who are uninsured, under-insured or disenfranchised. Although locally run, they are part of a national network serving almost 30 million people nationwide. American taxpayers save $24 billion yearly by community health centers preventing and managing chronic diseases.
Community health center employees are not just healers, but problem solvers who look beyond medical charts to address the factors that may cause poor health, such as poverty, homelessness, substance use, mental illness, lack of nutrition, lack of transportation and unemployment. They are always working to improve access to healthcare and basic human needs. They are innovators who harness technology to improve access to services by overcoming barriers to care.
Nevada Health Centers is the state’s largest and oldest community health center program. It operates 17 health centers, including:
• Sierra Nevada Health Center, 3325 Research Way, Carson City;
• Carson City School-Based Health Center, 618 W. Musser St., Carson City;
• Virginia City Health Center, 175 E. Carson St., Suite A, Virginia City.
The Sierra Nevada Health Center also houses a full-service pharmacy, which offers many patient benefits; collaboration between providers and pharmacists, and access to affordable medications, to name a few.
Nevada Health Centers also offers medical, dental and behavioral health visits via telehealth, which means that:
• Patients can be seen from the comfort of their own home;
• Patients can access certain types of specialty providers, like pediatricians and behavioral health specialist;
• Patients can see a telehealth provider in clinic if their regular provider is not immediately available;
• School-age patients can see a provider while at their school, with the help of a school nurse.
In addition to these brick-and-mortar locations and telehealth, Nevada Health Centers operates two mobile programs: The Mammovan, which provides mammography screening; and The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, which provides children’s dental care.
Visit nvhealthcenters.org for information. National Health Center Week is Aug. 8-14.
