Masks Required at Clinics

For the safety of our patients, visitors, and staff, the Healthy Connections Community Health Network will continue to require masks in accordance with current Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations.

Thank you for your cooperation.

HCI, Calandro Finalists for Arkansas Business of the Year Awards

Healthy Connections, Inc., and CEO Tony Calandro have been named finalists in the Arkansas Business 33rd Annual Business of the Year awards.

Healthy Connections, Inc., is a finalist for Nonprofit Organization of the Year, while Calandro is a finalist for Nonprofit Executive of the Year. The winners of each category will be revealed at the awards ceremony on March 3, 2021. Finalists were selected by an outside panel of judges and coordinated by Arkansas Business. Thirty-two finalists are selected from across the state in seven categories. See the complete list of finalists at www.ArkansasBusiness.com/ABOY.

Read the story about Healthy Connections, Inc., in Arkansas Business by clicking this link: https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/events/3/arkansas-business-of-the-year/honorees/792/healthy-connections-inc

Read the story about Calandro in Arkansas Business by clicking this link: https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/events/3/arkansas-business-of-the-year/honorees/795/tony-calandro

Healthy Connections is a Mena-based nonprofit community health network with clinic locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. Since its founding as a home-visiting program in 1998, Healthy Connections has been able to provide much-needed health, dental, behavioral health, and social services to families of every lifestyle.

Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.

 

HCI, CEO Calandro Finalists for Arkansas Nonprofit Awards

Healthy Connections, Inc., and its CEO Tony Calandro were selected as finalists for the Nonprofit Organization of the Year awards.

Healthy Connections, Inc., and CEO Tony Calandro have been named finalists in the Arkansas Business 33rd Annual Business of the Year awards.

Healthy Connections, Inc., is a finalist for the Nonprofit Organization of the Year, while Calandro is a finalist for the Nonprofit Executive of the Year. The winners of each category will be revealed at the awards ceremony and published in a special supplement of Arkansas Business on March 3, 2021.

Finalists were selected by an outside panel of judges and coordinated by Arkansas Business. Thirty-two finalists are selected from across the state in seven categories. See the complete list of finalists at www.ArkansasBusiness.com/ABOY.

Healthy Connections is a Mena-based nonprofit community health network with clinic locations in Mena, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Malvern, Arkadelphia, Mount Ida, and De Queen. Since its founding as a home-visiting program in 1998, Healthy Connections has been able to provide much-needed health, dental, behavioral health, and social services to families of every lifestyle.

Over the past year, Healthy Connections took its services to more places than ever before. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Healthy Connections provided completely-free testing at stops in 10 different Arkansas counties, including some without clinic locations like Texarkana, Gurdon, and Nashville. These day-long events took place in blazing heat and driving rainstorms as employees braved the elements to ensure anyone who wanted to be tested could be tested.

The year also saw an expansion in services with the addition of the Health For Life Clinic and Evolve Behavioral Health and Medication Management. Health For Life Clinic, which provides addiction treatment and testing and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients in Little Rock, joined the community health network in February and has been among the busiest clinics in the network. Evolve brought individual, family, and group mental health therapy to patients across west and central Arkansas just before the pandemic took off.

Cars line up at the mass testing event held in Texarkana in July.

In January, Healthy Connections opened the Franklin Community Health Center in the parking lot of the old Franklin Elementary School in Little Rock. This neighborhood clinic location provided much-requested medical services in a location that was considered a medical desert. And when the pandemic hit, this clinic was at the heart of the Covid-19 testing program.

In May as stay-at-home orders were being issued throughout the state, Healthy Connections quickly expanded its telehealth program to make sure as many patients as possible could be seen from the comfort of their own home.

“We are honored to be recognized alongside the other nonprofit organizations in this category,” Calandro said. “This year has been like no other. Our employees have faced many challenges and consistently found ways to overcome them, ensuring that our patients continue to receive the highest level of care.”

In the Nonprofit Organization of the Year category, Healthy Connections joins Arkansas Research Alliance, Arkansas Immigrant Defense, Children’s Advocacy of Benton County, and The Venture Center as finalists. Healthy Connections was also selected as a finalist in 2018 and 2019.

Calandro joined Healthy Connections 10 years ago and has overseen growth from about 3,000 patients served to more than 23,000 last year.

“I am excited to be a finalist for this award, but know that it would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our Healthy Connections staff,” Calandro said. “My philosophy has always been to provide employees with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs then stand back and watch them succeed. This award is a reflection of the job they did throughout the past year.”

In the Nonprofit Executive of the Year category, Calandro is joined by Shannon Boshears of UA-Pulaski Technical College Foundation, Wayne Miller of The Venture Center, Christian O’Neal of the UA-Little Rock Foundation, and Fred Scarborough of the Arkansas Children’s Foundation.

Learn more about Healthy Connections at www.healthy-connections.org.

 

Clinic Holiday Hours

Please note the following holiday hours at Healthy Connections Community Health Network clinics. Call 888-710-8220 for appointments:

Mena

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Hot Springs Central

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Hot Springs Chippewa

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Malvern

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Little Rock Franklin

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Health For Life Clinic (Little Rock)

Not open for appointments from Dec. 23 through Dec. 31)
Call (501) 603-0003 for appointments or medication refills

Arkadelphia

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Mount Ida

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

De Queen

Thursday, December 24: Open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, December 25: Closed
Thursday, December 31: Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday, January 1: Closed

Giving Thanks

​This Thanksgiving Day, we at Healthy Connections give thanks for all of our providers, staff, patients, friends, and families.

To celebrate this year, we asked some of our employees what they are thankful for this year.

 

Family, Friends, Health, Co-Workers, My job, my church, and all the blessings that the Lord continues to give to me daily.

Jessica Sickles

Mena

This year I’m thankful for many things. My family, my job, and my co-workers are just a few. Yes, it has been a rough year for many of us, but we all can look and see good things that have happened as well. Remember to thank those around you for all they do. Also under all these masks, smile!

Kathy Cook

Mena

I am so thankful for so many things – friends, family, being an American. But I’d like to especially point out that I’m thankful for my co-workers, people who have come together for the purpose of taking care of other, understanding that even with the risks of working in healthcare the benefits of helping others outweigh those risks. Happy, happy Thanksgiving to my HCI peeps!

Phyllis Cunningham

Mena

I am thankful that I have such a wonderful work atmosphere where everyone cares about meeting our patient needs. We have something very special here at HCI.

Stephanie Matthews

Mount Ida

I am thankful for my Salvation and my Church family, my husband, kids, and family and that they are all healthy and live close, my health, my job, living in a small town where everyone knows everyone and looks after each other, the freedoms we have now in America, Vacations with my husband and family, Pepsi, Sweet Tea, Dressing, Coconut Pie and ziplock baggies. 

Traci Pulley

Malvern

I’m thankful for me and my family staying healthy and well with everything that is going on!

Nikki Dillard

Mena

I am thankful for Latricia Reed & Audra Davidson. They never fail to help me. The Chippewa Clinic has been super informative and the women are amazing.

Candy Meyer

Hot Springs

Mostly for my salvation, and my God who makes all blessings flow, innumerable to count. The inner joy that carries me through, and the peace that comes from that security. My family, our health, and freedom. Our jobs, my boss, and the amazing dental team. They are an amazing group of people.

Debbie Bailey

Mena

I am thankful for my family (my children) and my work family at HCI! 🙂

Megan Carter

Mena

Celebrating Our Nurse Practitioners

Healthy Connections joins its Community Health Network communities in honoring the critical role of Nurse Practitioners, who are championing the health of our patients, as part of this year’s annual recognition of National Nurse Practitioner week (NP Week).

This year’s NP Week theme is “NPs Moving Forward: Today, Tomorrow, Together.” The 2020 commemoration occurs as NPs combat Covid-19 and the nursing community celebrates the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightengale’s birth.

Healthy Connections utilizes Nurse Practitioners at all of our clinics. They assess patients, order and interpret tests, make diagnoses, and provide treatment — including prescribing medications. Across the state and nation, NPs practice in clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, nursing homes, and private practices across the country.

Nurse practitioners blend expertise with an added emphasis on disease prevention and health management, NPs offer a comprehensive perspective to health care. They are the health care providers of choice for millions of people.

Healthy Connections joins the AANP and many others grateful across our communities in recognizing nurse practitioners for their leadership, putting the health of patients ahead of their own. This National Nurse Practitioner Week, we salute you.

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