Create a permanent home for CARE Clinic - Address 906 College Avenue, Red Wing, MN 55066 Project Director Name Julie Malyon Contact Phone Numbers (Voice, Fax) 651-388-1022 Email Address julie@careclinicrw.com Website Address, if applicable careclinicrw.com CARE Clinic will renovate a building into a permanent home for our clinic, which provides medical, mental health, dental, and insurance navigation services as part of our integrated health care model. The project includes internal demolition with the goal of renovation, construction, moveable or affixed equipment, permanent equipment installation, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, exterior modification, including windows, painting, and signage, and the construction of a storage shed for our mobile dental RV. The project will sustain and expand access to health care for low-income (up to 275% of the Federal Poverty Level), uninsured and publicly insured residents of Goodhue and Wabasha counties in southeastern Minnesota. CARE Clinic is located in Red Wing, Minnesota, which is about an hour away from the Twin Cities and Rochester metro areas. Without CARE Clinic, cost, lack of insurance, transportation, or difficulty taking time off work to travel and seek care would pose barriers to health care for more of the 17,000+ uninsured/publicly insured residents of Goodhue and Wabasha counties. In particular, CARE Clinic fills a gap in dental services in our service area. Prior to CARE Clinic’s dental expansion in 2020, Goodhue County was known as a “dental desert” for access to affordable dental care. A 2018 study by the Minnesota Department of Health found that only 34% of Goodhue County residents aged 6-20 enrolled in MHCP insurances received one or more dental services within the year, ranking Goodhue County as one of the worst, at 84th of 87 MN counties, for dental access prior to CARE Clinic’s dental expansion. For children aged 0-5, the percentage was 15.4%. In 2020, the County ranked 45th of 87 MN counties for dental care access for MHCP enrollees, and 73rd for children enrolled in MHCP who have had 1 dental visit within the last year (2019). This is an improvement, but there is still room to improve access to care. As part of renovating a building to serve as a permanent home for our clinic, we will increase the number of dental operatories/exam rooms, as well as construct a dental laboratory. This dental clinic expansion will increase our capacity, as well as provide the space to better support a dentist. Currently, CARE Clinic operates under as a collaborative dental practice and contracts with dentists who come in a couple times a month. Feedback from our annual patient satisfaction surveys has expressed a desire for expanded dental services. As a collaborative dental practice, there are services we cannot provide as part of our daily clinic because they can only be performed by a dentist. This feedback reflects the reality that many of our patients, especially adult patients, have had to delay dental care for so long that they have developed more complicated dental care needs, especially procedures like extractions, root canals, crowns, partials, and dentures, which only dentists can perform. A dentist can also provide more comprehensive dental exams and oral cancer screenings, expanding the scope of our preventative services. In addition, a dentist can train dental hygienists to become dental therapists, increasing the number of licensed dental therapists in our rural community.
