Fiscal Year 2025 Expanded Hours. - The HRSA Expanded Access funding opportunity aligns with Camino Health Center’s vision to, “transform our community with quality, integrated health services to advance wellness and improve the lives of the people we serve.” Camino Health Center (CHC) seeks to utilize this funding to increase hours and staffing at two of its in-scope clinical sites, in the cities of San Juan Capistrano and Lake Forest. Through the consideration of CHC’s most recent Service Area Needs Assessment and other data, CHC will look to add after-hours appointments in an effort to increase the number of adults receiving needed preventive health care, and also provide an increase in the number of hours during which households can receive care. At present, Camino Health Center’s San Juan Capistrano and Lake Forest clinics provide extended hours one evening per week. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, both clinics provided extended hours four nights per week. If awarded the maximum funds available in this opportunity, within 18 months CHC will add a four-hour shift, four additional days per week at both locations, which equates to an increase of 32 hours (19 % increase) to its current operations. This expansion of hours would not only see a return to, but would ultimately exceed Camino’s operating hours pre-pandemic. If awarded, CHC will use the funding to establish expanded hours at the San Juan Capistrano location within six months of the award. This would include 2 Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs), 3 Medical Assistants (MAs), and 2 Patient Service Representatives (PSRs). At the 18 month mark, CHC would replicate the above staffing at its Lake Forest location. In total the opportunity would fund 4 Providers, 6 MAs, and 4 PSRs. In addition, there would be an allocation for additional hours worked for supportive services (security guard and clinic manager) as well as EHR licensing fees and other costs associated with recruiting and onboarding the necessary staff. According to CHC’s Service Area Needs Assessment (2021), while nearly 19,000 residents were served by FQHCs, there were ~70,000 low-income residents in the service area, meaning that only one-quarter were served by FQHCs. Given this unmet need, CHC intends to continue to increase the number of patients in our service area receiving care by expanding access at our two largest clinic locations. CHC expects that the addition of after-hours care will positively impact our clinical operations in a number of ways. First, by increasing evening hours, CHC will provide additional access for patients who seek care later in the day, understanding that many of the patients in our service area are large families with school, sports and work responsibilities during normal working hours. (CHCs needs assessment indicated that 24% of the service area were comprised of young families compared to the national average of 22%). In addition, CHC’s needs assessment indicated that regional traffic is likely a barrier to care for low income residents within our service area. Extending hours past “rush hour” might allow for these individuals to seek care more regularly. Second, CHC hopes to provide more options for same day care. There is a shortage of urgent care or same day access in South Orange County for low-income residents. By increasing evening hours CHC will provide additional capacity for patients seeking same day care, avoiding unnecessary and costly Emergency Room visits. Lastly, CHC has experienced a significant influx of newly eligible Managed Medicaid patients in the last year, due largely to the expansion of Medi-Cal to all residents regardless of immigration status in California, and CHCs own efforts and investments in enrolling as many patients as possible into Medi-Cal. The additional schedule capacity will allow CHC more opportunities to outreach to newly assigned patients and conduct their Initial Health Assessment and establish care with Camino as their medical home.
