Sentara Healthcare Announces New Community Care Centers to Address Health Disparities

Sentara Healthcare is launching a new community care center model to address healthcare disparities and provide quality care to uninsured and Medicaid populations. This innovative program will pair health professionals from Sentara and other partnering health systems with community organizations to focus on specific disparity gaps. The community care centers will offer comprehensive primary care services, behavioral health support, and wraparound social services that aim to improve the community's overall health.

The goals for Sentara are to:

• Build trust and improve relationships with our patients who have challenges obtaining care;

• Evaluate local community health needs and design services to fulfill them;

• Expand neighborhood health care through mobile clinics, flexible hours, and telehealth services; and

• Develop programs to manage common diseases and expand preventative services.

Health systems must explore ways to dive into this area to reduce health disparities. Building and partnering with community health centers is a brilliant way. I applaud the effort from Sentara.