Windfall Lets Clinic Expand Space and Services

A year ago, the Greater Prince William Community Health Center was strapped for cash and on the brink of closing. Clinic officials were in survival mode, hoping that "Plan B," which was closing the doors indefinitely, never came.

Luckily, they said, it didn't.

Thanks to grants and close to $1.5 million in federal stimulus funds, health center officials are no longer debating how to keep the doors open. Instead, they are discussing hires and marketing strategies as they prepare to open a second wing that will double the facility's size and offer new services to the insured and uninsured in the greater Prince William County area.

"I think some of us cried when we heard about the funding," said health center board member Barbara DeChene. "Doubling our size was not even on our list or even in our dreams last year. We were optimists and visionaries, but we didn't think any of this would be possible a year ago."

The health center, off Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge, is about to embark on a $500,000 expansion project to add about 6,500 square feet. The funding will be used to renovate the space and hire about 20 people to provide the new services, which include dental, prenatal and behavioral health care. Everything is scheduled to be done by November.

"Not in our wildest dreams did we envision being at this point," board member Margaret K. Goldberger said. "But I think the timing of this couldn't be better considering the number of uninsured continues to rise. . . . We are going to be able to help a lot of people directly affected by the recession."

Frank J. Principi, the health center's executive director and a Prince William supervisor, said health officials determined what services to add based on what demands were not being met in the community. Dental care is a big one, he said, and so is prenatal.

Principi (D-Woodbridge) said that in the Manassas and Manassas Park area, the infant mortality rate is about 16 deaths for every 1,000 live births. That's more than double the national rate, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said is about 6.7 per 1,000 live births.

"We saw that infant mortality was a huge issue locally," Principi said. "But we think our new services will help solve that by providing the prenatal care."

Founded in 2004, the health center provides laboratory, family and internal medicine services, physical and well-woman exams, pharmacy assistance and chronic disease education. The center was started when nearby hospital emergency rooms were overflowing and affordable health-care options in Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park were scarce.

"We need to provide care to everyone [insured or not], and it is much more efficient to do it here than in an ER," U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said while visiting the center last month. "Community health centers like this are crucial. If we don't have them, then we will have a hole in medical care."

The health center served its first patient in 2006 and seemed to have a promising future, center officials said. That changed in 2008, when Prince William County cut the $450,000 in funding it had been providing.

With the help of grants, the two nearby hospitals and private donations, center officials were able to keep the doors open -- although barely -- until this year, when things began to turn around.

In March, the center became a federally qualified facility and began receiving federal stimulus funds. Patient numbers also took off, and officials said they are on pace to see more than 6,000 this year, compared with 4,000 last year.

Health officials said they plan to celebrate the turnaround, but Principi said funding a facility that gets its money mainly from grants, insurance reimbursement and patient payments -- which generally run $45 a visit -- will always be a challenge.

"What we are doing is exciting," he said, "but also a little nerve-wracking because we don't want to jeopardize the financial footing we've established."