The CommonHealth of Kentucky
A 13-part KET production aimed at improving the health of all Kentuckians by sharing health and wellness projects from across the state that are succeeding in making their communities healthier.
Be Well Kentucky
a project of KET’s Be Well Kentucky initiative
The CommonHealth of Kentucky is a 2005 KET production. Produced in partnership with the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Lewis County Primary Care Center
P.O. Box 550, Vanceburg, KY 41179, (606) 796-6440
www.lcpcc.org
Featured in: Program 2 | Program 13
Lewis County, on the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky, is one of the state’s largest and most rural counties, with only one incorporated town. Its hilly terrain, extensive farmland, and forests and streams make it a lovely place to live or to visit. But the long distances, the absence of urban centers, and pervasive unemployment mean that access to health care can be difficult, both geographically and economically.
Enter the Lewis County Primary Care Center. Through its network of clinics, this community-based nonprofit organization offers comprehensive health care ranging from prenatal services to geriatrics. In Vanceburg, the LCPCC operates the Lewis County Family Health Center, the Eleanor Johnson Women’s Center, the Lewis County Family Dental Clinic, and the Fitness First and Rehab Center. It also runs family health centers in Tollesboro and Flemingsburg, a pharmacy in Tollesboro, and clinics in each of the Lewis County public schools. Together, these facilities serve more than 12,000 patients a year from Lewis and surrounding Fleming, Greenup, Mason, and Rowan counties.
The LCPCC prides itself on efficiency. Since patients often have already traveled some distance, the staff is dedicated to keeping waiting time to a minimum. An electronic medical records system that can be accessed directly from examination rooms also gives the medical staff instant access to patients’ histories, helping to streamline consultations.
That efficiency extends to dollars, too. The Lewis County Primary Care Center has one of the lowest costs per patient among comparable community health centers around the country. Patients are seen regardless of ability to pay and are charged on a sliding scale based on income. Through a system of partnerships with other local and regional organizations, many are also eligible for free or discounted medications.
The service offered by the LCPCC is anything but bare-bones, though. The center has integrated sophisticated mental health, cardiology, optometry, endocrinology, mammography, MRI, and school health services into its definition of “primary care.” And the same kind of high-technology tools that connect doctors to patient information also connect them to one another, enabling them to learn from their far-flung colleagues by medical teleconference.