Tuesday, February 4, 2025
2/4/2025
Applicant: Family Health Services of Erie County Address: 1912 Hayes Ave, Sandusky, OH 44870 Contact: David Tatro, CEO / Email: davidt@familyhs.org / Phone: (419) 502-2822 Website: http://www.familyhs.org Federal Funding Request: HRSA Expanding Hours, FY 2025 Family Health Services of Erie County (FHS) is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) based in Sandusky, Ohio. FHS’ designated service area encompasses most of two north-central Ohio counties: Erie County, which borders Lake Erie, and Huron County; the next county south of Erie County. FHS was established as a health center look-alike program in November of 2010, and in 2014 received FQHC funding via a HRSA New Access Point award. FHS provides medical primary care, dental care, behavioral health (BH) and enabling services and also maintains a 340B pharmacy program. Since 2020, FHS has grown significantly, expanding from five sites, including two school-based health centers within Sandusky City Schools, to a network of 15 sites. The main site for medical, dental and BH services as well as administrative offices are located on Hayes Avenue on the south side of Sandusky. FHS operates a second site that serves medical, dental and BH services within Norwalk, in Huron County. FHS also operates a site in Sandusky, adjacent to a senior center, that provides medical and BH care mostly to older adults, and 11 school-based health center (SBHC) sites. Later in the summer of 2024, FHS will open a new site in downtown Sandusky that will provide medical, BH and the first in-house 340B pharmacy operated by FHS. Under this Expanded Hours application, FHS proposes to add evening and weekend hours at two existing sites: 1) 1912 Hayes Ave Ste. D, in Sandusky, OH 44870 and 2) 265 Benedict Ave, Norwalk, OH 44857. The expansion at both sites will ensure better access to care by offering more flexibility for patients and greater capacity to provide comprehensive care to a target population primarily compr ised of people living with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. At the Hayes Ave. facility in Sandusky, FHS will expand clinical hours to 7:00 p.m. or later two days per week (currently the latest weekday hours are 6:00 p.m.). In Norwalk, Expanded Hours funding will enable FHS to offer Saturday dental hours to address a growing backlog of dental appointments. FHS is now scheduling patients several months out due to the demand for dental care. Northwest and north-central Ohio remains a dental shortage area, and FHS’ two dental facilities in Sandusky and Norwalk offer two of only a few options lower-income populations have for care. FHS also will expand transportation services, provided directly by FHS, to Saturday as well to accommodate patients who need transportation from anywhere in the service area to the Norwalk site for dental care. The expansion in hours at these two locations will offer additional capacity for the entire patient and target population in this mostly rural service area with a population of 129,591, of which 38,958, or 30.5%, of people are living with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. Sandusky is the largest and the most urban city, and also has the largest concentration of poverty and urban blight. Of the 40,018 residents who live in the greater Sandusky area, 15,019 individuals, or 37.9%, of the population live at low-income levels. The overall population of the service area is 87.7% White or Caucasian and 15.5% of the population is considered a racial or ethnic minority, including 6% who are Hispanic or Latino. FHS’ service area has several health indicators that are worse than those for the nation as a whole. To address these health disparities, FHS has maintained steady growth over the past four to five years, and in CY 2023 served 15,142 unduplicated patients, an increase of 18.6% over the 12,763 patients served in 2022.
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).