Community Health Connect

The mission of Community Health Connect is to improve access to medical and dental care for low-income, uninsured men, women, and children. We accomplish this goal through the coordination of a volunteer provider network, providing health education and by maximizing existing community resources.

Description:
We work with willing doctors and dentists who agree to provide charity care to our clients in their own offices. Our staff screens the patients for eligibility and then schedules the appointments directly with the provider’s offices. In addition to coordinating appointments with network providers, our team provides health education at local health fairs and collaborates with many other local service organizations to provide outreach projects that improve health care and the lives of many in the community. We also have a resource-based website (available in Spanish or English) which is a useful resource for those seeking health access points in the community.

History:
In 1997 the collaborative group Healthy Utah Valley, a Healthy Communities Initiative in partnership with the United Way and others decided to develop a community-based medical program. Their purpose was to improve access to health care for the low-income, uninsured, to reduce unnecessary use of hospital emergency departments, and to help the community focus on preventive health measures. The collaboration included community agencies, government officials, hospitals, the local health department, and concerned community members. The vision was to help the medically underserved receive vital prevention and services before their health issues turned into emergencies. Community Health Connect, with their volunteer provider network emerged as a product of these collaborative efforts.

Funding to start the program was received from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the form of a planning grant. The following year (1998) the program was awarded another grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, through their Local Initiatives Funding Partners program office. This time the grant was a four-year matching grant to promote the health access program. The program, designed to help low-income, uninsured Utah County residents’ access medical specialty care, was housed for several years under the umbrella of United Way. Early efforts led to a cadre of health care providers donating their services to clients in need. Local foundation partners provided grants to match the money from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and root the program in the state. All the while the program continued gathering providers, clinics, hospitals, ancillary care facilities and personnel across the county to join the program and donate services.
In 2002 the program moved under the purview of Mountainlands Community Health Center to better facilitate assistance for the medically underserved. An estimated 90% of the clients at Mountainlands are eligible for CHC specialty care services, so the fit with the primary care facility made sense. In 2003 another grant with the Robert Wood Johnson was secured to expand the medical specialty referral network to include dental care. An estimated one third of Utah County residents lacked dental insurance. With rising costs for even basic preventive care, dental services were out of reach for many individuals and families in Utah County. The addition of the dental professionals to the network of volunteer providers allowed Community Health Connect to open services to even more people in need, and included the addition of dental hygiene and dental assisting schools, dental labs, dental clinics, and a variety of dentists and dental specialists.

In late 2005, to increase funding opportunities available to its programs, Community Health Connect moved out from the Mountainlands umbrella to become its own nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. The medical specialty and dental volunteer provider networks have continued to grow, and CHC continues to provide a valuable service to the Utah County community.

Contact people:

Starr Stratford, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Dodd Greer, Program Manager, (phone), (email)

Main office number: (801) 818-3015
Office fax number: (801) 818-1003

Languages Spoken: English, Spanish

Address:

591 S. State Street (900 East) Provo, UT 84606 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.communityhealthconnect.org

Miscellaneous Information

Services
	Health Education Outreach Medical Assistance Dental Assistance
Funding
	Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, United Way of Utah County, local funding partners
Affliations
	Mountainlands Community Health Center, Healthy Utah Valley, United Way of Utah County, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Last updated on August 30, 2010