Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Fiscal Year 2025 Expanded Hours. - La Clínica del Pueblo, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC, Grant No. H80CS08244) and 501(c)(3) organization, is dedicated to building a healthier Latinx community through culturally appropriate health services, particularly for low-income, immigrant, and Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals in the DMV area. Our project seeks funding to expand La Clínica del Pueblo's service hours, enhancing accessibility and reducing health disparities, thereby advancing our 41-year mission towards a barrier-free, healthy, and empowered Latinx community. Despite advancements in healthcare coverage through policies like the Affordable Care Act, Latinx individuals in the DMV area still face significant barriers to accessing healthcare. Data indicates that Latinx individuals are more likely to be uninsured and encounter linguistic and systemic obstacles that hinder their utilization of necessary health services. In response, La Clínica serves as a critical access point for this community. In 2023, La Clínica del Pueblo provided comprehensive healthcare services to our community, delivering over 12,500 primary care appointments, 4,800 mental health services, and 10,400 substance use disorder encounters, reaching more than 4,400 unique patients. However, our ability to fully meet community needs continues to be constrained by limited operational hours. Currently, our service schedule includes only 40 clinical hours per week. This limitation arose because of scaling back during the COVID-19 pandemic due to staffing turnovers and operational modifications. We are seeking support to overcome the systemic obstacles that the pandemic created, simultaneously enhancing our capacity to increase access to after-work and after-school time slots. Persistent healthcare disparities in the DMV area highlight the need to expand La Clínica del Pueblo's service hours. Limited after-hours access hampers those with daytime commitments. By extending operating hours, we'll provide more flexible appointments, essential for inclusive access. This change is vital to meet our community's needs, ensuring healthcare for all, irrespective of personal schedules, and fostering a more equitable environment for timely primary care. La Clínica del Pueblo proposes a strategic expansion of our operational hours to better meet the healthcare needs of our community. We plan to extend our hours from 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday, increasing available clinical services to 50 hours per week, with potential weekend expansion. To accomplish this, we plan to implement a phased approach to staffing to support this expansion effectively. In addition, we will adjust the percentage of administrative to clinical hours per practitioner to increase access to their panel across the expanded hours. This staffing model will ensure that we maintain high-quality care without overburdening our staff, promoting a balanced work environment. These changes are designed to not only increase direct patient care hours but also enhance our capacity to provide continuous and comprehensive services across all departments, including primary care, mental health, and substance use treatment programs. With the expanded hours, we anticipate increasing access to primary care for over 1,000 additional patients annually, significantly enhancing our healthcare delivery model and patient satisfaction. The Expanded Hours of Operation initiative is a strategic response to the urgent need for more accessible, culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare in the DC Metropolitan Area. Supported by the HRSA-25-084 funding opportunity, this project aims to substantially enhance our service capacity, promoting better health outcomes and reducing disparities among vulnerable populations.
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).