August 7-13 has been recognized by the Napa County Supervisor’s office as National Health Center Week.
National Health Center Week has been celebrated for more than 30 years, and sponsored by the sponsored by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). Early on, health centers as part of NACHC, recognized the benefits of joining together in a week of celebration to showcase their programs and deliver a strong message nationwide for their health centers and patients.
The goals of National Health Center Week are twofold: To enhance the visibility and profile of Community, Migrant, and Homeless, and Public Housing Centers; and to generate community pride and build support for the health centers program. National Health Center Week provides an ideal occasion to celebrate the long record of success and delivery of high quality, cost effective, and accessible care across the nation.
One of the bright spots in America’s healthcare system, health centers started over 50 years ago as a pilot project during President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Today, they 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
- Generating $26.5 billion in economic activity and over 230,000 jobs
- Reducing infant mortality rates
Health centers not only prevent illness and foster wellness in the most challenging populations, they produce innovative solutions to the most pressing healthcare 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 addiction. Because of their long record of success in innovation, managing healthcare costs, and reducing chronic disease, leaders in Congress have declared health centers a model of care that offers a “bipartisan solution to the primary care access problems” facing our nation.
OLE Health is proud of the services provided to the community for over 44 years. A health care home to trust, OLE Health looks forward to continuing providing high quality health care for all.
OLE Health Chief Executive Officer Tanir Ami accepted the Proclamation declaring August 7-13 National Health Center Week in Napa County
Thank you to Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza, Diane Dillon, Keith Caldwell,Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce, Brad Wagenknecht for your kind words about OLE Health in the community.
