A small area in the southwestern corner of New York State, along the New York-Pennsylvania border known as Chautauqua County, has faced a shortage of healthcare professionals and services for countless years. Being a rural area, this deficiency traditionally has always been stronger, however the shortage is national in scope.
The beginning of The Chautauqua Center (TCC) commenced in 2010, when The Health Foundation of Western and Central New York focused on expanding access to healthcare for “at-risk” populations. Those considered “at risk” are limited to communication, medical, independence, supervision, and transportation services. Ann Monroe, Director of The Health Foundation of Western New York at the time, had a consultant come in and carry out assessments on current resources and potential solutions to gaps. It was found that Chautauqua County was in such high demand of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).
At that point, The Chautauqua County Health Network (CCHN), dedicated to strengthening the local health and wellness delivery system in Chautauqua County and advancing the interests of hospitals and patients, was asked to help by assembling key partners within the county to determine who might be willing to move forward with the formation of an FQHC. Ultimately, it was determined that no existing group wanted to pursue FQHC status.
A community Board of Directors was formed in 2011, including Sue Sosinski, The Chautauqua Center’s Clinical Supervisor. This group worked diligently to create the structure needed to meet all Board of Director requirements. This included hiring Michael Pease as the interim Chief Executive Officer. Once Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), our primary funder, released a request for proposal for a new access point, an application was then submitted. TCC was not funded in the initial round of awards, however, it was after a subsequent second round of funding was provided; we received our award in July 2012. The original award was to convert an existing pediatric office to the FQHC, however, the physician withdrew last minute. TCC then started from scratch to find a location, which is now 319 Central Avenue in Dunkirk, and a new Chief Medical Officer, which lead to the hiring of Dr. Tat-Sum Lee. In addition, Michael Pease hired eight new staff members, including our first provider, Kattie Vincent, NYS Licensed Physician Assistant.
In January 2013, TCC was officially up and running! It didn’t take long thereafter for TCC to expand with other departments including, Mental Health. We then opened our secondary primary care site just 35 minutes away in Jamestown, NY in September 2015. This location also opened dental services to Jamestown patrons soon after. Within the same year, we then added another Substance Abuse program, Care Coordination, and an Eat Smart Program.
An additional Dental department then opened in December 2017 in our Dunkirk location, follow by our School Coordinator program. We even achieved PCMH Level III around this time! Ever since our establishment, we’ve continued to grow in terms of partnerships, and patients we serve, as well as programs and services we offer. In fact, in January 2018, we opened our most recent Pediatric office in Dunkirk, NY.
We have high hopes and many great things planned for TCC in the future, especially with our new 55,000-square-foot site that’s expected to open at the end of 2018!
TCC’s mission is to deliver comprehensive, high quality patient-centered health and support services in the Chautauqua region. Our patient-centered service principles are access, treatment, education, and prevention delivered by friendly and professional clinic and administrative teams. Our vision is to provide and deliver comprehensive healthcare and support services to the residents of the Chautauqua region, in which our dedicated and qualified staff carry out daily. CHCANYS is the voice to our state’s network of community health centers and helps our center provide the highest level of quality care. CHCANYS is truly a movement that has helped our staff and community members to become advocates for our patients, our center, all FQHC’s and has also been of great assistance in education for our staff, as well as recruiting efforts.
Our values consist of professionalism, respect, integrity, development and excellence. This has been an exciting time for TCC as we continue to grow and serve local individuals and families. We currently employ over 100 employees, and continue to add new positions monthly. In 2013, we served 1,729, and within 5 years TCC has remarkably served 7,784 individuals within the community. We continue to grow as a family at TCC, work diligently to expand our services, redesign workflow to make us more efficient and effective, and continue to integrate services for a healthier community! TCC is a true example of our family caring for your family!
