Saturday, April 5, 2025
4/5/2025
Congressionally Directed Spending for Construction Projects - The project is to renovate and outfit an existing 11,000 sf two-story building in the Williamsbridge commercial district of the Northeast Bronx, to house a state-of-the-art Community Health and Wellness Center. BCHN’s proposed community-based federally qualified health center is designed to provide co-located, integrated medical, behavioral and oral health services, podiatry, pharmacy, and complementary health promotion, education, outreach, social support, care coordination and chronic disease management services. The medical, behavioral/mental health services delivery center will be located on the ground floor of the building; with dental, health and wellness, social support services and other programs on the second floor; and the basement will accommodate activity and community spaces for all age groups including afterschool programming, fitness, cooking and health and financial literacy workshops. We will integrate our existing Health and Wellness Program into the new health center. This includes programs like our emergency room diversion to primary care; asthma education and trigger mitigation in homes; remote, cellular-enabled hypertension and diabetes monitoring; maternal and infant care; and prevention of opioid overdose deaths through naloxone education and distribution. Our outreach care coordination specialists will help patients and clients navigate complex health and human service systems, connect them to resources such as housing, food, employment, childcare and continuing education/career training, and nurture them along paths to chronic disease management and actualization of personal goals. The NE Bronx service area is classified by the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) as a Tier One area with unmet need and by HRSA as both a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) and Health Provider Shortage Area (HPSA). HRSA HPSA data also points to a shortage of affordable oral health care providers. The service area includes a total population of 263,436 persons from four zip codes (10466, 10467,10469, 10470). 90% of the population is characterized as racial and ethnic minorities, predominantly Black and Hispanic, with an unemployment rate of 44%. Approximately 100,350 or 38% is designated low income and about 56.2% as medically unserved. The service area was also identified as a COVID-19 epicenter. These indicators are significant predictors of poor health and delayed health seeking practices in a population. To address the unmet need, the new Section 330e compliant FQHC will add nearly 11,000 new patients to BCHN’s scope by year 3 of operation. This new health center project will also be a source of employment for approximately 30 full-time FTE well-paying new jobs, including security, maintenance, administrative and clinical support personnel, community health workers, nurses, and doctors. The BCHN community health and wellness center will follow the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of coordinated, comprehensive, patient- and community-centered care that integrates medical, dental, behavioral health, substance use harm reduction, and other patient services. Our multi-service FQHC will provide high quality primary care services focusing on disease prevention, a key driver in reducing health care costs, and realize significant savings by reducing dependence on costly emergency department and hospital visits for the predominantly Black/African American and Hispanic population.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).