Fiscal Year 2025 Expanded Hours. - OneWorld Community Health Centers (OneWorld) is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization located in Omaha, Nebraska. OneWorld began as a free health clinic in 1970, initially staffed by volunteer physicians. Since HRSA initially awarded grant funds to OneWorld as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in 2001, the scope and breadth of sites and services have expanded significantly. OneWorld served 51,913 patients in 2023. OneWorld’s service area covers a designated Medically Underserved Area/Population (MUA) and a target population that includes individuals residing at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), the uninsured and the medically underserved. In 2023, 42% of OneWorld’s patients were uninsured. Of patients with known income, 98% reported incomes under 200% of the FPL. Additionally, 69% were Hispanic and 34% served in a language other than English. Further barriers to care among our target population include poverty, perceived cost, lack of transportation, and lack of access to affordable care, fear of visiting a clinic due to uncertain immigration status, language and culture. OneWorld is one of two FQHCs in Omaha, Nebraska, that is mission-driven to increase access to quality healthcare for underserved populations. As a result, the health center is experiencing tremendous demand for health care. The 2021 Metro Area Community Health Needs Assessment 2021 reported that 11% of Omaha residents reported inconvenient office hours as a barrier to care. Additionally, 23% of the Hispanic population had not received primary care in the past year and 19.3% of very low-income people had not visited a dentist. Community organizations,through key informant surveys, reported that location, time, availability, insurance and transportation were barriers to accessing care. According to the Nebraska Health and Human Services 2021 report on oral health, 58% of Nebraska third-grade children had dental decay and 24% had untreated decay. Additionally among children, 58% had not received dental sealants. Lower-income minority schoolchildren had a significantly higher prevalence of decay. OneWorld helps break down patient barriers by locating sites and services within the community in efforts to support convenient access to care, where possible. OneWorld works passionately to meet the health needs of the community within the service area and operates 17 clinic locations, including a three-facility campus in Omaha, located in an underserved Hispanic community, four clinics in high poverty cities surrounding Omaha, five inner city School Based Health Centers, one mobile medical school-based clinic, two mobile dental clinics, two Teen clinics and one Pediatric Dental Clinic. We are requesting Expansion of Hours funding for a proposed two-year period to expand critically needed culturally respectful and linguistically and competent oral healthcare for children. The target population for this project are the students, families and communities served by OneWorld. This expansion includes early morning and evening hours four days a week and weekend hours as well as daytime hours and an estimated 1,500 patients. A new Pediatric Dental Care team will be hired and serve patients 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday and Saturdays. . In addition to the Pediatric Dentist, OneWorld will add three dental assistants, a hygienist and a patient registration staff member. The new providers will work with a multidisciplinary team expanding and building on OneWorld’s successful implementation of oral health integration with primary medical care.
