The Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center was recently awarded $1.3 million in grant funds by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Health Resources and Services Administration to be used to build a 3,500-square-foot medical facility at 24 Old Firehouse Road in Plattekill.
The facility, built on land purchased from the Plattekill Fire Department, will include six exam rooms for internal medicine, pediatrics and OB/GYN as well as ancillary and enabling services.
Family Health Center officials estimated the new facility will serve nearly 2,950 patients in its first year with an anticipated increase to 3,500 patients by its third year of operations.
The project is expected to cost $1.6 million, and $1 million will be funded through the grant award. A construction time frame was not immediately available.
Family Health Center President and CEO Linda Muller called southern Ulster County a “medically underserved community,” and said the center was “thrilled” to receive the funding.
“These awards will help our health center address three important local issues: the need for additional healthcare services in southern Ulster County, a need for essential eye care for vulnerable populations, and increased availability of substance abuse services needed to combat increasing opioid abuse in our community,” Muller said.
The Family Health Center was one of 1,184 health centers in the U.S. to share in approximately $350 million worth of federal grant funds, and was one of 160 grantees nationwide to share in $150 million awarded by the Health Infrastructure Improvement Program.
Family Health Center was also awarded more than $294,000 per year for two years to expand access to primary care services, including optometry services previously only available to patients by referral.
In response to what they called a “heroin epidemic” plaguing Orange County, officials from the center also plan to add a physician’s assistant at the Center for Recovery, the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services-licensed Methadone program in Newburgh.
“Over the past few years, the scourge of heroin has hit the Hudson Valley hard; nearly everyone I talk to knows someone who has been hurt by this epidemic,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said. “This investment in combating substance abuse is critical to the future of Newburgh and the Hudson Valley, and will allow Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center to continue their excellent work expanding medical care and services to keep our families safe and healthy.”
For more information on GHVFHC, visit www.ghvfhc.org.