UA Nurse-Managed Rural Health Center Moves to New Walker County Site, to Host Open House Nov. 9

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – In the past year, the Capstone Rural Health Center in Parrish saw more than 3,200 patients, and a new facility in a more visible location should enable the center to serve even more patients, said a University of Alabama nursing professor who serves as the center’s executive director.

Dr. Jeri Dunkin, the Saxon Chair for Rural Nursing in UA’s Capstone College of Nursing, said the center’s new modular building approximately triples the clinic’s space to 4,000 square feet, doubles the examination rooms to six, houses new equipment and provides a much larger waiting area.

An open house for the new facility, located at 5947 Highway 269 in Parrish, which is in front of the post office, is scheduled for Nov. 9.

The center, which has now obtained status as a Federally Qualified Health Center, known as a FQHC, first earned FQHC Look-Alike status in May 2006. This made it eligible for a Bureau of Primary Care program for Community Health Centers. An FQHC grant of $556,000 from the Bureau of Primary Care enabled the center to use funds normally geared toward other operating expenses to obtain the new building, Dunkin said.

The Center also recently added a second nurse practitioner position and plans to later add a registered dietician to its staff and expand its telehealth monitoring capabilities, Dunkin said. As the grant is renewable, the Center stands to receive more than $1.85 million in funding from the Bureau over the next three years. Currently, about 35 percent of the Capstone Rural Health Center’s patients are uninsured.

Primary care at the Center is provided by nurse practitioners David Jones and Belinda Hogue. Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with advanced education and clinical training. They collaborate with physicians as needed. Dunkin said the Walker County center was one of only two nurse managed centers in the nation to receive funding from the Bureau of Primary Care this year

The Center, which opened in June 2001, is designed to provide affordable, high quality, primary care to an underserved population while also providing an environment in which nursing and other health-related students can learn, Dunkin said. The Center treats patients both with and without private insurance and also accepts Medicare, Medicaid.

Between Aug. 1, 2006 and Aug. 1, 2007, the Center had 3,223 patient visits. All of the Center’s staff are University of Alabama employees.