Drive along Broad Street in Central Falls on a weekend and you’ll see that it plays a significant role in the city’s small economy.
“It’s bustling on a Saturday afternoon,” said Neil Amper, vice president at Capstone Properties, a Massachusetts-based real estate brokerage and management firm with a regional office in Providence. “There’s a lot of small retail businesses and markets along there.”
Broad Street isn’t in the news much. One of the few times it got widespread attention was in 2014, when the Osram Sylvania lightbulb factory there closed. It was one of the city’s largest taxpayers and more than 70 people were laid off.
Not far from the old Osram Sylvania site, the nonprofit Blackstone Valley Community Health Care Inc. is on the rise. It fully opened a new $16 million health care center at 1000 Broad St. in late June.
The three-floor, 47,000-square-foot Blackstone Valley Neighborhood Health Station is designed to be a “one-stop shop” for the varied primary care needs of residents of Central Falls – known as one of Rhode Island’s smallest and poorest cities, located along the state’s northeast border with Massachusetts.
The new center offers medical, radiology, pediatric, obstetrics and gynecological, dental, physical therapy, behavioral health, and pharmacy services. Currently, about 45 people work at the center but staffing there is planned to eventually increase to 100 people or more.
“This building is a testament to the strength of this vibrant neighborhood,” said Raymond Lavoie, Blackstone Valley Community Health Care’s executive director. “Six years ago, the [R.I.] Department of Health convened a community meeting and more than 100 residents assembled and voiced the need for better access to primary care. We at Blackstone Valley Community Health Care were there and we listened.”
Because of the new center’s nonprofit status, there won’t be much, if any, increase in tax revenue for the city from the project, Amper said. However, he said, it could have other benefits to the neighborhood beyond health care.
“There may be some spinoff [economic impact] from a retail component,” Amper added. “Local businesses may see a bump in breakfast and lunch customers.”
[caption id="attachment_287003" align="alignright" width="210"]
DOCTOR VISIT: Dr. Charlie Imonah speaks with patient Steven Vasquez of Cumberland at the new Blackstone Valley Neighborhood Health Station on Broad Street in Central Falls.
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
The first floor of the new center opened in February, followed by the second floor in March. The third floor opened in June.
In September 2015, Blackstone Valley Community Health Care bought the nearby Notre Dame Ambulatory Center and the 2.7-acre parcel of land surrounding it from Memorial Hospital. The Notre Dame building was demolished to make room for the new center.
Built in the 1920s, the Notre Dame building was aging and had many structural issues. After a cost-benefit analysis, the nonprofit decided to build a new center instead of repairing the Notre Dame building. The old building was demolished once the nonprofit took occupancy of the new center, so patients at the old building could be transferred to the new one.
The nonprofit’s mission is to have the new center serve 90% of the Central Falls population.
Dr. Michael Fine, Blackstone Valley Community Health Care’s senior clinical and population health officer, said the new health station is one of eight federally funded community health centers in Rhode Island.
“This is not a hospital,” Fine explained, adding that the facility doesn’t have an intensive care unit and surgeries are not performed there. He called the new center a “new model” for providing community medical services.
If the new center meets expectations, it will draw more people into the neighborhood, Fine said, adding, another goal is to reduce health care costs.
“We think they’ll be a real advantage to the city as a whole,” he said.
For example, the new center can divert unnecessary patient traffic away from hospital emergency rooms. What may be treated at the new center for $100 to $200, Fine said, might cost $1,000 or $2,000 for an emergency room visit.
Another way the new center can reduce health care costs is through preventative care and testing. The new center is intended to provide residents with an accessible and affordable place to come on a regular basis to catch health problems before they get worse.
“About 5% of the population is responsible for about half of the health care costs in the United States,” Fine added.
The nonprofit projects that by December 2021, the new center will be getting about 16,000 visitors annually.
The nonprofit transferred its staff and medical professionals from its Chestnut Street location and from the Notre Dame building in February and has since hired 13 additional professionals. Its on-site partners at the new center – CVS Health Corp., Lifespan Corp., and Advanced Radiology Inc. – also have hired more employees.
“I am one of a family of four and I’m like a lot of people in this area,” said Samantha Ortiz, a patient at the new center. “My family was undocumented for a while. My mother couldn’t get insurance, a license or a car. Getting medical help was difficult. Now, scheduling an appointment, getting to your doctor and paying for your care are all possible for people of this community.”
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Blake@PBN.com.
