Elvin Plank, COO speaking with PACC staff while Booker Thomas, CEO awaits his turn.

Tuesday at the HealthNet Pediatric & Adolescent Care Center, the burrito/nacho bar  from California Connection Catering was served and was delicious!  We may have been cramped in that room, but it was well worth it.  Booker Thomas, our President & CEO, Elvin Plank, our COO, and Larry Flick, our CFO were able to make it, too.  It was great to sit and listen to staff ask questions, make suggestions, and share how things are going at their center.  A lot of the time throughout the year is dedicated toward great service to our community and patients, but this one week out of the year is serving as an excellent opportunity to not just eat good food, but also learn about the needs and celebrate successes of each center.

Melissa Drew of CAFE speaking to Eastside staff.

That same day, HealthNet Eastside Health Center celebrated their staff lunch.  Our newest center, nearly two months old, invited other members of the Far Eastside Neighborhood Center to join in their lunch.  It was awesome to see the other community service providers in the building joining to celebrate National Health Center Week.  It is the community connection that makes our patient-centered medical homes efficient and effective!

CCT and Maternal-Fetal Staff enjoying their lunch!

On Wednesday, we celebrated HealthNet with the Care Center at the Tower & Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center.  What afun group! It was great to see in interaction and camaraderie of these teams.

At our Homeless Initiative Program (HIP), everyone was wearing their shirt!  It was very cool to see because, being an outreach program, often people separate HIP from HealthNet’s community health centers because of the difference in services provided.  But the important thing to remember is that while the services may be different, we serve the same clients and communities.  Without our outreach programs, HealthNet would not be able to boast about the significant wrap-around services provided within our walls.

HIP Staff - full after a delicious lunch!

Each year National Health Center Week sets aside three days to focus on special populations who are often left outside of the mainstream health care system. It was cool that HIP’s celebration actually fell on Health Care for the Homeless Day!

Happy National Health Center Week everyone!  The week isn’t even over, but we are already looking forward to next year!

P.S. More photos can be seen on our Facebook page – check it out!

 Well, we JUST became a Far Eastside neighbor!!

At HealthNet, we’ve been deeply invested in our neighborhoods for more than 40 years. In fact, many of our health centers began with small groups of residents working to bring health care to their communities, when they didn’t have any doctors nearby. Creating a health care home starts right in our own neighborhoods, with primary care providers who maintain long-term relationships with their patients.

This week, we joined our seventh community and became a Far Eastside neighbor! The new HealthNet Eastside Health Center opened at 38^th Street and Post Road, and will serve more than 2,000 people each year — many living below the federal poverty level.

It’s great to be neighbors with the Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE), LaPlaza, and other groups at the Far Eastside Neighborhood Center that provide much needed services for this community.

The Far Eastside’s story of involvement and advocacy started in the 1980s, when four local women sat around a kitchen table to discuss the needs of the community. The health center’s staff is excited to be a part of these ongoing efforts to make the Far Eastside a better place to live!

Take Maricela, for example, who began working at HealthNet 11 years ago as a Spanish medical interpreter. She loves what she does, and went back to school to become a medical assistant and later a childbirth educator. Now she’s excited to share her skills and experiences to help Spanish-speaking patients at the new health center.

Susan was a pediatric nurse practitioner for 31 years in Muncie before joining the HealthNet team. She, too, is looking forward to using her talents to help families that have had difficulty getting care.  “This is a very good fit for me,” she said with a smile.

Brandi worked at the Marion County Health Department for many years and is one of the health center’s medical assistants.  “I just completed mytraining to become an MA, so I’m looking forward to the challenge and to doing something different,” she said. “It’s exciting to be a part of the start of this new center.”

Want to be a good neighbor to the Far Eastside? Here’s how you can help:

• Read more about how you can be involved in creating a Quality of Life plan for this community.
• Help CAFE win a 2 KW Solar Renewable system for the Far Eastside Neighborhood Center. It just takes a few clicks!
• Help start a Patient Assistance Fund for the new health center. $25 can help patients with emergency medical needs such as medications, food, shelter, or transportation to and from their medical appointments.
• Sign up for regular updates about the HealthNet Eastside Health Center!