For Piedmont Health, January is a time to look back in pride at how much we’ve done and to look forward in anticipation of the great things to come. We have grown to 10 community health centers that, along with our two SeniorCare sites, serve 43,000 people – and we’re still growing and improving.
First, let’s take a look at our accomplishments in 2015:
- We opened the Chapel Hill Community Health Center after decades of being located only in neighboring Carrboro although the two communities are closely linked and are really part of the same service area. I’m looking forward to being able to better serve Chapel Hill.
- We opened the IFC Community Health Center, located in Chapel Hill inside the new men’s homeless shelter run by the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services. The health center serves men, women and children. It marks the first time Piedmont Health has been officially designated as a health-care provider for the homeless.
- The number of families served by our Senior Care program reached 354 – that’s 354 families who have been able to keep elderly residents in their homes rather than moving to a nursing home or other institution. When families enroll in SeniorCare, a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), they have peace of mind that they can care for their loved ones, as they age, in a safe and comfortable environment and at an affordable cost.
- We completed a $400,000 renovation of the Charles Drew Community Health Center in Burlington and we received a $1 million grant to renovate the Carrboro Community Health Center. Once the Carrboro project is complete, will have either built new or renovated all of our sites in the last five years.
- We served 43,000 patients in 2015, more than ever before. That’s 43,000 people receiving the right care at the right place at the right cost.
- Piedmont received Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition for all of our centers. Granted by the National Committee for Quality Assurance after a number of conditions are met, the recognition is an affirmation of the high quality of the medical services we provide to our patients.
- Piedmont’s staff topped 400, including more than 50 medical providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants.
- Our budget, for the first time, topped $1 million per week. In 2015, our operating budget was $53.6 million. (By contrast, it was $39 million in 2013.)
- We reached an agreement to become a teaching site for University of North Carolina medical students at all of our sites. This will not only bring in additional medical personnel, but it will be a recruiting tool for Piedmont Health for one of the nation’s best medical schools. (Our recruiting rate for UNC med students who have worked with us so far is a perfect 100 percent.)
In summary, in 2015 Piedmont Health expanded to keep up with demand for medical care in central North Carolina and to make sure our care kept pace with medical advances and changes in various laws and requirements. This is more of an achievement than the casual observer might think. It was a year that, despite all of the uncertainty about Medicaid and Medicare, fighting among elected officials and partisan rancor, we were able to create a place to make people feel welcome, and to find a way to provide the care people need.
Proud as we are of what we were able to accomplish last year, we are not finished. Among the improvements we plan for 2016, in addition to those I already mentioned, include:
- We will renovate our corporate office, which we have outgrown.
- We will expand our PACE program. We are looking at a third site to complement the sites in Burlington and Pittsboro. The new site would serve patients in Person, Caswell and Orange counties.
- We will become more engaged with Medicaid payment reform.
I’m confident we will succeed because we have hundreds of people working at Piedmont Health who are dedicated to providing the highest quality care in the world despite any and all obstacles and challenges. What I’m most proud of is being part of this group.
Brian Toomey, CEO