Hamilton Health Center has been providing quality medical, dental and support services to residents in the greater Harrisburg area for over forty years. In 1969 community leaders Mrs. Sarah Jones, Mr. Lorenzo Roland Sr., Mrs. Coleen Ivey, Dr. Claude Nichols, Mr. William Schirmer and Mr. Peter G. Alapas turned their vision to reality with a part-time clinic staffed by Harrisburg Hospital personnel in the basement of the former Augsburg Lutheran Church. With technical As a result, Hamilton became, and remains today, the only Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) within a 30 mile radius of Harrisburg, PA.
assistance from Harrisburg Hospital, Hamilton applied for and received a $1.25 million grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) to provide health services in 1972. As a result, Hamilton became, and remains today, the only Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) within a 30 mile radius of Harrisburg, PA. During this same time period over 265 volunteers from the Greater Harrisburg area participated in a fund raising drive to purchase and renovate the Augsburg Lutheran Church Education Center at 1821 Fulton Street in Harrisburg.
The renovations were completed in 1973 and Hamilton began offering full-time services in its new center. This continues to be the site of Hamilton’s main medical practice. The center expanded its scope of service to include the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) supplemental nutrition program in 1976, serving all of Dauphin County; and, in 1988 Hamilton became the only community health center in Pennsylvania to contract with the State to provide managed care to Medical Assistance recipients.
In 1993, the Walnut Street facility opened to provide WIC and dental services to the residents of Allison Hill. Following that, in 1995 and 1996 with the assistance of former PA Governor George Leader, school-based clinics at Foose and Camp Curtin Elementary Schools in Harrisburg were added to Hamilton’s roster of services.
Hamilton applied for and received a grant from the US Department of Health & Human Services and the PA Department of Health in 2002 to provide HIV/AIDS counseling, testing, and treatment services to hard-to-reach populations.
With the growing needs of the Harrisburg area, Hamilton entered into several collaborative agreements to better serve our community. In 2004 Hamilton and the Harrisburg Housing Authority entered into an agreement to provide medical services to Senior Citizens in the Lick Building; then in 2006 C.L. Cressler entered into an agreement with Hamilton and opened a Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy at Hamilton’s Fulton St location, offering low cost medications to Hamilton patients.
Hamilton Health Center’s Board of Directors, Senior Management Team, and community members formed a strategic planning committee in 2005 and developed a strategic plan that identified the need to acquire a larger facility to meet the growing demand for service. By 2008Hamilton expanded its hours of operation from 40 hours to 56 hours per week in 2009, making services more accessible to working patients and responsive to increased need.
Hamilton developed plans for the new facility and the implementation of an electronic medical record system.
Hamilton expanded its hours of operation from 40 hours to 56 hours per week in 2009, making services more accessible to working patients and responsive to increased need. Over 19,000 men, women and children - more than 30% of whom were uninsured -received medical and dental care at Hamilton in 2010. Hamilton will break ground on a new 67,000 square foot location in July 2011, which will enable Hamilton Health Center to significantly expand access to care for the community. The new location will reduce congestion, improve productivity, allow additional space for a pharmacy and laboratory services and enable services to be available additional hours to better serve the community.
In 2018, Hamilton celebrated its Grand Opening of Hamilton Family Eyecare at the main location on 17th Street. Hamilton celebrates the Grand Opening of Hamilton Health Center of Perry County, the organization’s first rural site in Newport, Pennsylvania.
