Thanks to U.S. Rep. French Hill for dropping by the Healthy Connections Little Rock Franklin clinic on Wednesday as part of National Nurse’s Day.
Hill dropped off some sweet treats for our staff and was able to visit with Healthy Connections CEO Tony Calandro, Little Rock Franklin physician Dr. Chris Hopkinson, nurse Sarah Jennings, LPN, and other staff members. Hill is the U.S. Representative for Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District and was first elected in 2014. Congress is responsible for much of the funding for community health centers, including Healthy Connections, Inc.
In health care, gaps are described as disparities in healthcare access, needs, and medical services when comparing different populations that fall along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. The mission of Healthy Connections, Inc., is to fill those gaps with high-quality healthcare our communities can be proud of. Healthy Connections is a Mena-based nonprofit organization serving the needs of children and adults throughout West-Central Arkansas. Since its founding in 1998 as a home-visiting program, Healthy Connections has been able to provide much-needed health, dental and social services to families of every lifestyle.
Healthy Connections providers treat thousands of patients each year who either have no insurance or not enough insurance to cover essential health and dental services.
Healthy Connections has become a lot of things to the five communities it currently serves as a primary care provider, dentist, pediatrician, behavioral health therapist, cardiologist, podiatrist, and physical therapist. But mostly it is a place people can go to receive quality care regardless of their ability to pay. Healthy Connections accepts Medicaid, including ArKids First, Medicare, and most forms of health and dental insurance. However, no person will be turned away for lack of insurance. Qualified families will be charged according to their total family income and total persons living in the household. This sliding scale fee allows many to receive treatment who otherwise would not have been able to afford it.
The Little Rock Franklin clinic opened earlier this year on the site of the former Franklin Elementary School in Little Rock. The health clinic is currently set up in the parking lot but will eventually move inside the building once the Community Health Centers of Arkansas Franklin Complex opens to the public. At the Franklin clinic, Healthy Connections provides primary care services for patients, including testing for COVID-19, regardless of symptoms.
Learn more about the Franklin clinic at www.healthy-connections.org/franklin.
The Healthy Connections community health network is open and seeing patients both in the clinic and via telehealth, allowing patients to stay in contact with their providers. These services include evaluation and testing for COVID-19, regardless of symptoms.
This includes primary care, dental (emergency procedures now, full services May 18), behavioral health, and all specialties. This also includes surgical procedures related to gynecology, podiatry, and cardiology.
Call (888) 710-8220 for appointments. Healthy Connections, a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, has clinic locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. These clinics see patients for primary care/family medicine, including pediatrics-focused clinics in Hot Springs and De Queen. Find a location at www.healthy-connections.org/locations.
COVID-19 testing is no longer limited to high-risk patients only. If you are sick with respiratory symptoms, we can evaluate and test you for COVID-19. If you want to be tested, we will test you. Note that test results are being returned from the lab in an average of 24 to 72 hours.
Call (888) 710-8220 or make a Healthy Connections TeleHealth appointment at www.healthy-connections.org/telehealth. Many insurances are now covering this testing and waiving copays.
Any person who enters a Healthy Connections clinic will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms.
Healthy Connections specialties, including gynecology, podiatry, and cardiology have resumed full services, including surgeries. Patients having surgery will need to be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours of their scheduled appointment time.
Healthy Connections also offers dental services in Hot Springs and Mena. These clinics are currently doing only emergency procedures (anything not considered routine such as check-ups and cleanings). Full dental services are expected to resume on May 18. Call (888) 710-8220 for info.
Additionally, Evolve Behavioral Health and Medication Management is also seeing patients both in the clinic and via telehealth at Healthy Connections locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Malvern, and Arkadelphia. Learn more about Evolve at www.evolvebhs.com.
Healthy Connections and Evolve accept Medicaid, ARKids 1st, Medicare, and most private health insurance. There is also a sliding-fee scale for patients without health insurance who qualify. Medicaid patients may have to switch their primary care provider to Healthy Connections before you can be seen.
Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.
May is recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month.
Did you know that mental health problems are common in at least one out of every five people? This can cause people to think, act, and feel differently than they usually do.
For a person going through these difficulties, the different feelings are very real and often scary. Evolve Behavioral Health can help. We have both in-clinic and telehealth appointments.
Learn more at www.evolvebhs.com
#EvolveWithUs #YouAreNotAlone
Healthy Connections is offering same-day COVID-19 testing at all of its clinics this week. This includes patients who the state of Arkansas now requires to be tested before elective surgeries.
Patients should call (888) 710-8220 for an appointment. Same-day appointments are available at all locations. Test results are being received within 24-72 hours.
Healthy Connections can also test patients, regardless of symptoms. This is being done at clinics in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Mena, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. See the map below for testing locations.
Last week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that outpatient elective surgeries can resume beginning on Monday, April 27. For patients to be eligible for these procedures, they must meet several requirements, including having a COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the procedure. This is being done to ensure the safety of both the patient and the clinic staff during the procedure.
Healthy Connections is doing this COVID-19 testing at its clinics in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Mena, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. Call (888) 710-8220 for appointments. Visit www.healthy-connections.org for more information, including COVID-19 updates, testing locations, and more. These tests can be done regardless of patient symptoms. Healthy Connections can also work with surgical providers to test their patients before the procedure.
The complete requirements that were announced included:
- The procedure must be scheduled so the patient is not expected to spend the night in the hospital
- The patient must not be sick and does not have a lot of underlying medical conditions.
- The patient has had no contact with a COVID-19 patient within the previous 14 days.
- The patient has no symptoms of COVID-19.
- Patients must be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours of the scheduled surgery.
Healthy Connections specialists, including Pittman Moore, MD (OB/GYN), Richard Bennett, DPM (podiatrist), and Vito Calandro, MD (cardiologist) will also resume some surgical procedures.
Healthy Connections dentists in Mena and Hot Springs are still open and doing “emergency” procedures. These procedures include most services that aren’t considered maintenance.
Nonprofit Healthy Connections strives to fill the healthcare access gaps in Arkansas. Since its founding in 1998 as a home-visiting program, Healthy Connections has provided much-needed health, dental, and social services to families from nearly every lifestyle. Healthy Connections accepts Medicaid, ArKids 1st, Medicare, and most private health insurance. There is also a sliding-fee scale for patients without health insurance, based on total family income.
Most health insurance covers COVID-19 testing at no cost to patients. Healthy Connections is waiving patient fees for COVID-19 testing for sliding-fee scale patients who qualify.
The Healthy Connections community health network offers primary care/family medicine, general dental services, and specialties including pediatrics, cardiology, podiatry, women’s health, and chiropractic. Evolve Behavioral Health and Medication Management, a division of Healthy Connections, provides mental health services.
Nonprofit Healthy Connections opened in 1998 as a home-visiting program. Primary Care health clinics now stretch from De Queen to Little Rock and help provide care where there are disparities in healthcare access. Healthy Connections also offers specialties, including Behavioral Health, Dentistry, Pediatrics, Podiatry, Cardiology, Chiropractic, and Women’s Health, depending on location.
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Healthy Connections can ensure surgical clinic and patient safety by providing COVID-19 testing at all of its Arkansas clinics.
This week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that outpatient elective surgeries can resume beginning on Monday, April 27. For patients to be eligible for these procedures, they must meet several requirements, including having a COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the procedure. This is being done to ensure the safety of both the patient and the clinic staff during the procedure.
Healthy Connections is doing this COVID-19 testing at its clinics in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Mena, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. Call (888) 710-8220 for appointments. Visit www.healthy-connections.org for more information, including COVID-19 updates, testing locations, and more. These tests can be done regardless of patient symptoms. Healthy Connections can also work with surgical providers to test their patients before the procedure.
The complete requirements that were announced included:
- The procedure must be scheduled so the patient is not expected to spend the night in the hospital
- The patient must not be sick and does not have a lot of underlying medical conditions.
- The patient has had no contact with a COVID-19 patient within the previous 14 days.
- The patient has no symptoms of COVID-19.
- Patients must be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours of the scheduled surgery.
Healthy Connections specialists, including Pittman Moore, MD (OB/GYN), Richard Bennett, DPM (podiatrist), and Vito Calandro, MD (cardiologist) will also resume some surgical procedures.
Healthy Connections dentists in Mena and Hot Springs are still open and doing “emergency” procedures. These procedures include most services that aren’t considered maintenance.
Nonprofit Healthy Connections strives to fill the healthcare access gaps in Arkansas. Since its founding in 1998 as a home-visiting program, Healthy Connections has provided much-needed health, dental, and social services to families from nearly every lifestyle. Healthy Connections accepts Medicaid, ArKids 1st, Medicare, and most private health insurance. There is also a sliding-fee scale for patients without health insurance, based on total family income.
Most health insurance covers COVID-19 testing at no cost to patients. Healthy Connections is waiving patient fees for COVID-19 testing for sliding-fee scale patients who qualify.
The Healthy Connections community health network offers primary care/family medicine, general dental services, and specialties including pediatrics, cardiology, podiatry, women’s health, and chiropractic. Evolve Behavioral Health and Medication Management, a division of Healthy Connections, provides mental health services.
Nonprofit Healthy Connections opened in 1998 as a home-visiting program. Primary Care health clinics now stretch from De Queen to Little Rock and help provide care where there are disparities in healthcare access. Healthy Connections also offers specialties, including Behavioral Health, Dentistry, Pediatrics, Podiatry, Cardiology, Chiropractic, and Women’s Health, depending on location.
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Community Health Centers of Arkansas CEO LaShannon Spencer wrote a guest column this week in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette / ArkansasOnline.com . Community Health Centers, like Healthy Connections, Inc., are doing everything we can to fight COVID-19, but we must survive and thrive after this crisis. We’re appreciative of what Congress has provided thus far, but Community Health Centers need much more help from Washington, D.C.
Click the link below to read the column in its entirety. Click here to learn more about Healthy Connections.
Congress must aid health centers
LASHANNON SPENCER
SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
When the novel coronavirus hit Arkansas, community health centers rose to the challenge, immediately shifting our business model. Unlike some private providers restricting who they see, we’re proud that we test residents for COVID-19 while taking special precautions to still meet the traditional health-care needs of our loyal patients.
“I have seen several families who were just so grateful that they were being seen. We have had families tell us that they were turned away elsewhere,” reports Dr. Rebekah Beyers, a pediatrician for Community Clinic in Springdale. “One mother told us she trusted that we would not tell her to come in unless we thought it was important and that we would help to keep them safe. Trust from our patients is one of the best things we could hope for.”
Many don’t realize the reach and value of community health centers in Arkansas. Without us, the state’s general health and the economy would suffer.
The 11 members of the Community Health Centers of Arkansas offer COVID-19 testing sites across the state at more than 60 of our clinics—from Siloam Springs to Eudora and from De Queen to Corning.
Without a dependable source from the state or federal governments for personal protective equipment (often referred to as PPE), we’ve scoured hardware stores and asked community partners to help ensure our staff and the public are adequately protected. We’ve kept our clinics open with special screenings in tents or drive-up evaluations to limit access.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN
