Community Health Center of Cape Cod has promoted Theresa Guanci, DMD to Dental Director and has hired Madeline Bergin, BSPharm, RPh, CIP as Pharmacy Manager to help launch its dental office and retail pharmacy in their renovated Bourne location. The dental office is set to open in November, and the retail pharmacy will open before the end of the year. Both dental and pharmacy services will be open to the public.
Dr. Guanci, of Mashpee, was promoted to the position of Dental Director after she served as the Interim Dental Director and Staff Dentist. Dr. Guanci is a graduate of Boston University’s School of Dentistry and joined the Health Center in 2014. She completed the final year of her externship at the Health Center and decided to return. In addition to providing leadership in our Mashpee location, Dr. Guanci will launch the Bourne location dental services. The expanded Bourne location has two dental chairs, and services are available to all individuals, even if they are not a patient of CHC of Cape Cod.
CHC of Cape Cod will also open a retail pharmacy in the next few months at their Bourne location, and Ms. Bergin will serve at the Pharmacy Manager. Prior to joining CHC of Cape Cod, Ms. Bergin, of Bourne, was the original Pharmacy Manager of the satellite Stop & Shop pharmacy in Bourne for 15 years. She also served as the Pharmacy Manager for CVS Corporation for seven years. She graduated from University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and has been a Registered Pharmacist in Massachusetts since June 1980. Ms. Bergin is an affiliate of the Massachusetts Pharmacists’ Association.
For more information about CHC of Cape Cod’s services, visit: www.chcofcapecod.org/services
Community Health Center of Cape Cod hosted its 17th annual golf tournament at Pocasset Golf Club on Monday, September 25. One hundred golfers participated, raising funds to support Health Center efforts to provide increased access to integrated primary care, dental, behavioral health and optometry services to children, adults and families on Cape Cod. The Health Center is grateful for the wonderful show of support from the community and tournament sponsors, enabling them to raise more than $65,000. This is the most successful tournament the Health Center has hosted in recent years. Cape Cod Healthcare was the Platinum Sponsor of the event. Gold sponsors of the tournament included: Callahan Construction Managers, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, Dellbrook JKS, Falmouth Lumber, Group Brokerage Insurance Agency, Lawrence-Lynch Corp, PIAM, Quest Diagnostics, Raponi Drywall, Slade Mortgage, The Valle Group, and W.B. Mason Company, Inc.
Pat Callahan, Phil Dinan, Ted Doyle, and Ed SanClemente from Callahan, Inc. placed first in the men’s division. Winning first place for the mixed group was Robert Foos, Ed Mackness, Marion Maney, and Richard Miller. The golf tournament is one of many events in Community Health Center of Cape Cod’s year-long 20th Anniversary Celebration.
Community Health Center of Cape Cod will host their 17th Annual Golf Tournament at Pocasset Golf Club on Monday, September 25. The Annual Golf Tournament serves as a significant fundraising opportunity for the Health Center, and supports the daily expenses associated with providing affordable healthcare to all, regardless of ability to pay. We would love to have you attend to cover this event on September 25!
Founded in 1998 as the Falmouth Free Clinic, CHC is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing primary care, behavioral health care, optometry, dental services and women’s health care, as well as specialized services and a full-service pharmacy to more than 15,000 patients. The Health Center has offices in Mashpee, Falmouth and Bourne.
More information about the event is below, and the times of the most important components are highlighted:
Event Date: Monday, September 25, 2017
Start Time:
10:00 am: Registration and lunch
11:30 am: Shotgun start
4:00 pm: Dinner
5:00 pm: (Approximately) Awards will be distributed, and remarks will be given by Karen Gardner, CEO and Joe Hawley, Committee chair
Location: Pocasset Golf Club, 24 Club House Drive, Pocasset, MA 02559
Event Contact: Alex Speck
Event Contact Phone (day of): cell: (917) 509-6813
Event Contact Email: [email protected]
Event Website: www.chcofcapecod.org/golf
Community Health Center of Cape Cod believes everyone deserves accessible, affordable, high-quality care and is committed to expanding medical and behavioral health services for substance use disorder prevention and treatment. As a result, the Health Center’s structured and safe outpatient, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program is now available to the public. All individuals can participate even if they are not a registered patient of CHC of Cape Cod.
Since 2010, the Health Center has offered an office based opioid treatment program, and the overwhelming current need in the community has led to a significant expansion of this program. The MAT program at the Health Center involves the use of Suboxone or Vivitrol to treat individuals with substance use disorders. Vivitrol blocks the pleasurable feelings produced by using opioids and alcohol. Suboxone helps to diminish cravings, does not produce a high, and blocks or reduces the effect of heroin and other opioids. Participants in the MAT program at CHC of Cape Cod can count on care in a safe and empowering environment, development of an integrated treatment plan, access to comprehensive services at CHC, personalized pathways to recovery through consistent guidance and Medication-Assisted Treatments.
During weekly visits with a combination of certified physicians, registered nurses, behavioral health clinicians and support staff, the CHC team will assist patients with their recovery, supporting them both physically and emotionally. Education for maintaining a healthier lifestyle is an important step on the road to recovery, and this program provides individuals with the necessary tools to live a healthy drug-free and alcohol-free life.
Medication-Assisted Treatment services are available at all three CHC of Cape Cod locations in Mashpee, Falmouth and Bourne. For more information about the MAT program and Addictions Treatment at Community Health Center of Cape Cod, visit www.chcofcapecod.org/services/addictions, or call 508-477-7090 ext. 3106.
Click here on CapeCod.com to read about the Legislative Breakfast during National Health Center Week #NHCW17 where local leaders addressed the keys to healthier communities.
Community Health Center of Cape Cod hosted an Opening Reception and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at their newly-renovated Bourne office at 123 Waterhouse Road on Tuesday, August 15. The expansion from 2,200 square feet to nearly 10,000 square feet was designed to meet the increasing demand for residential access to primary care, behavioral health, dental and pharmacy services. More than 60 individuals gathered to celebrate the opening of the expanded space, including Community Health Center of Cape Cod board members, donors, staff and friends, along with community partners.
The expanded space in the Bourne office will include dental services, including preventative exams and restorative care; a public pharmacy providing access to affordable medication; improved office space for increased patient privacy and comfort; expanded Primary Care, Behavioral Health and Addictions Treatment services and dedicated space for prevention and wellness education to help patients understand and manage their health.
Following tours of the new location and a ribbon cutting ceremony, the Health Center’s Chief Executive Officer Karen Gardner introduced and led a panel discussion with local leaders on substance use. Panelists included Massachusetts State Representative Randy Hunt, CEO of Duffy Health Center Heidi Romans Nelson, Bourne Deputy Fire Chief Joseph J. Carrara, Senior Project Manager at Barnstable County Department of Human Services Vaira Harik, and Medication-Assisted Treatment Nurse Coordinator of Community Health Center of Cape Cod Jennifer Monaghan.
Ms. Gardner started the discussion by asking each panelist to address what their organizations are doing to combat addiction. “The two bookends to addiction are prevention and recovery, and they are the most difficult,” Ms. Harik said. All the panelists echoed the sentiment that early intervention and prevention in schools is key in fighting the addiction program on Cape Cod.
In 2014, Former Governor Deval Patrick declared opioid abuse an epidemic. Heroin use and mortality from overdose has nearly-doubled since 2012. Eight percent of Cape residents are now addicted to alcohol and 6,700 residents in our community have died from opioid abuse in the last 10 years. Representative Randy Hunt stated that it’s going to be a challenge to fight the epidemic if we don’t use our time, effort and money at the State level to introduce prevention programs in the schools.
Bourne Deputy Fire Chief Carrara emphasized the need to support the Substance Free Coalition. “We are on the front lines,” Carrara said, adding that the Bourne Fire Department fields an average of 5,000 calls and 100 overdoses in Bourne a year.
For more information about expanded Addictions Treatment at Community Health Center
Community Health Center of Cape Cod is organizing a number of events from August 13-19 to celebrate National Health Center Week. Each year, health centers across the nation celebrate the work and services they provide to populations in need within their communities on designated days during the week. As the country’s largest primary care network, Health Centers now serve as the health care home for over 25 million Americans in over 10,000 delivery sites across the nation. One in every 13 people in the United States gets their care in a community health center. Health Centers deliver high quality, cost effective, accessible care to all people, regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status.
The theme for National Health Center Week 2017 is Celebrating America’s Health Centers: The Key to Healthier Communities. CHC of Cape Cod is hosting the following events free and Open to the public:
For information about any Health Center Week activities at Community Health Center of Cape Cod, contact Alex Speck in the Development Office at 508-477-5990, or email Alex Speck.
As a Patient Centered Medical Home, CHC of Cape Cod holds itself to the highest standards. Ensuring patients have access to care when they need it and request it, and validating that staff are working at the top of their licensures, are foundations of this model. CHC is proud to announce the recent launch of a Patient Engagement Center (PEC) designed to help strengthen those foundations.
The initial focus of the PEC is on managing inbound calls and scheduling appointments with Mashpee primary care providers. Two full-time Patient Access staff members are tasked with answering every live call that reaches the Mashpee operator. Patient Engagement protocols will guide staff when an appointment should be scheduled with the primary care provider, and this should reduce the opportunities callers have to circumvent the operator. Rather than forwarding calls onto the medical teams, Patient Access staff will create telephone encounters in their electronic health records system which will be routed to the team clinical administrators or nursing staff.
Ultimately, the aim of the Patient Engagement Center is to allow CHC of Cape Cod to sustain all facets of Patient Engagement: supporting clinical teams with patient care, working with the Complex Care team as they reach out to patients newly discharged from the hospital, and registering and orienting new patients. Creating a robust program for patient engagement is critical to helping the Health Center maintain its strategic goals: high quality patient centered care, operational excellence, a sustainable business model, and a destination for outstanding people.
Legislators and Community health centers met in a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the importance of Prevention and Wellness Funding in terms of patient preventative and complex care. We are committed to reauthorizing funding in the State budget for the PWTF. To see a full Cape Cod Times article, click here.
p: 508-477-7090
f: 508-477-7028
123 Waterhouse Rd.
Bourne, MA 02532
1185B Falmouth Rd.
Centerville, MA 02632
210 Jones Rd.
Falmouth, MA 02540
26 Edgerton Dr.
N. Falmouth, MA 02556
