National Campaign Celebrates Health Care Heroes
Allentown, Pa. – August 10, 2018 – Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley will host three events in celebration of National Health Center Week 2018, a national campaign to raise awareness about the mission and accomplishments of America’s Health Centers and the dedicated staff who bring health care to the medically underserved.
The week’s events include:
- Monday, August 13 – Honoring Health Center Heroes Day. Health center employees will wear special super hero t-shirts and participate in raffles with gift card giveaways. Staff members will be chosen by the NHCLV board of directors from all nominations submitted by staff and patients. Those staff members chosen will receive a framed certificate of appreciation and gift.
- Wednesday, August 15 – Health Care for the Homeless. The NHCLV Easton health center at the Two Rivers Health & Wellness Building will offer free oral health screenings for local residents.
- Friday, August 17 – Patient Appreciation Day. Patients will receive giveaways and participate in raffles. They will also be encouraged to share their experiences at NHCLV health centers with staff and on social media.
NHCLV would like to thank the following businesses for donating items to our patient and staff raffles: Capital BlueCross, AmeriHealth Caritas, United Health Care, Aetna, Gateway, McKesson Medical Supplies, Phoebe Floral, Party City, AMC Theaters, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Entenmann’s.
NHCLV is part of a nationwide network of health centers that serve more than 27 million Americans. Health centers have compiled a significant record of success that includes:
- Producing $24 billion in annual health system savings
- Reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and unnecessary visits to the emergency room
- Treating patients for a fraction of the average cost of one emergency room visit
- Maintaining patient satisfaction levels of nearly 100 percent
- Serving more than one in six Medicaid beneficiaries for less than two percent of the national Medicaid budget
- Lowering the cost of children’s primary care by approximately 35 percent
The heroes who work at health centers and help make affordable health care possible for people in need are at the center of this year’s NHCW. More than 205,000 people work at health centers in positions that include clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, dentists and dental hygienists, behavioral health specialists, and much more.
Working together, these health care heroes produce innovative solutions to the most pressing health care issues in their communities. They reach beyond the walls of conventional medicine to address the factors that may cause sickness, such as lack of nutrition, mental illness, homelessness and substance use disorders. It is their work that has helped reduce health care costs and reduce chronic disease, generating a record of success and along with it a long tradition of bipartisan support in Congress.
To learn more about National Health Center Week and the listing of events please visit: www.healthcenterweek.org. You can also follow the conversation using #NHCW18 on Twitter.
ABOUT NHCLV: Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley, based in Allentown, Pa. was officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2004 by a group of concerned community residents. Their goal was to meet the need for a coordinated system of primary care for the uninsured and/or underinsured residents in the Lehigh Valley. After obtaining designation as a Federally Qualified Health Center-Look-Alike in September 2010, NHCLV submitted a New Access Point application in November 2010 and was awarded grant funding in 2012. NHCLV currently operates three primary care sites in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, and is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the Lehigh Valley. www.nhclv.org
Information and image provided to TVL by:
Tracey Werner, Blabbermouth Communications
