Halifax Medical Center formed a public-private collaboration — Volusia County Cooperative Health Group (the cooperative) — to expand access to primary and specialty care for underserved residents of the Daytona Beach/Volusia County, Fla., area.

The cooperative was comprised of representatives of the Halifax Medical Center, the county medical society, local health department, city and county government, the school system, a local foundation, and community representatives.

The expansion included a community health center in a public housing complex in Daytona Beach, and volunteer physician care at two additional county sites, helping to meet a health care need precipitated by the 1997 closing of county-run primary health clinics.

Key Results

• The cooperative helped established the Halifax Keech Street Community Health Clinic. It was located in a public housing complex in Daytona Beach, served the general medical needs of a neighborhood with a large minority population.
  • The Halifax Medical Center's Physician Volunteer Program hired a nurse practitioner and clerk to support volunteer physicians during evening hours and at two daytime specialty clinics at Keech Street. One clinic was for cardiology (non-acute cardiac problems) and for orthopedics (previously untreated injuries, new fractures, etc.).
  • In the two specialty clinics, approximately 180 patients, making approximately 275 visits, were served during the grant period.
  • The Orthopedic Clinic continued to operate, but the PVP Cardiology Clinic closed in February 1999, after its volunteer cardiologist moved away and a replacement volunteer could not be found.
• The cooperative also helped established the Bert Fish Medical Center's Community Health Center in New Smyrna Beach to provide medical care to underserved residents of southeast Volusia County. The community of about 17,000 people is located 20 miles south of Daytona Beach. The clinic was a collaboration of the Bert Fish Medical Center Community Health Center and the Volusia County Health Department.
  • Volunteer doctors treated approximately 10,855 patients, averaging about 27 per day, and participated in community health programs, such as a mobile mammogram program and prostate cancer screenings.
• Another Bert Fish Family Health Center in Edgewater, Fla., established during the project, was relocated September 1999 from Oak Hill, Fla., due to low patient volume. Both communities are south of Daytona Beach. At the time of the move, the clinic eliminated the services of a nurse practitioner and a licensed practical nurse, and began sharing staff with the New Smyrna Beach clinic.
  • The Family Health Center provided primary health care to approximately 3,000 medically needy patients and conducted various health programs, such as a diabetes support group, prostate screening, and CPR classes.
• Both the New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater sites were approved as MediPass providers in February 1999. MediPass, the Medicaid Provider Access System, is a primary care case-management program for Medicaid recipients administered by Florida Medicaid. As of September 1999, the clinics had 171 MediPass patients assigned.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided two grants totaling $160,071 to support this effort from October 1992 through December 1999.

Additional support for this project came from the Bert Fish Medical Center ($75,389) and the Bert Fish Trust ($13,739). The Volusia County Health Department provided in-kind support (space at the New Smyrna Beach site) and added staff support.

After the Grant

In November 2000, the Edgewater site also closed due to low patient volume. Residents of the Oak Hill and Edgewater areas were redirected to medical services 20 minutes away in the Bert Fish Center in New Smyrna Beach.