Ryan White Title III HIV Capacity Development and Planning Grants - - Project Title: FY 2025 RWHAP Part C Capacity Development Program - Applicant Name: Sun River Health, Inc. - Address: 1037 Main Street, Peekskill, NY 10566-2913 - Project Director Name: Anne K. Nolon, MPH, Chief Executive Officer - Phone Numbers Voice: 914-734-8747 Fax: 914-734-8745 - E-Mail address: anolon@sunriver.org Website: www.sunriver.org - Funding Amount Requested for One-Year Project Period: $150,000 - Statutory Preference: Qualification 2: Underserved Populations Sun River Health is a New York State-licensed Diagnostic & Treatment Center and a federally qualified health center (FQHC), recognized by the NCQA as a Patient Centered Medical Home. Sun River Health has been providing comprehensive HIV care & treatment for approximately 35 years. - Identification of the selected category: Sun River Health is seeking Part C Capacity Development funding to implement an Infrastructure Development project. - Needs to be addressed: People with HIV are at a higher risk for oral health problems due to a weakened immune system, making it critical to prioritize dental care and maintain good oral hygiene. In addition to the oral health conditions themselves, unresolved oral health issues can lead to other health problems. Despite these escalated needs, low-income and vulnerable individuals with HIV in Sun River Health’s service area have limited access to care due to a lack of dental providers (aside from Sun River) who accept Medicaid or are able to accommodate the unique needs of special populations such as individuals experiencing homelessness. While Sun River Health offers comprehensive dental care at several of its Part C program sites, these dental practices are operating at capacity, and patients with HIV often wait months for a dental appointment. - Summary of proposed activity/proposed services: Sun River Health is proposing a dental equipment for expanding dental service capacity activity to improve the Health Center’s capacity to enhance and expand access to high-quality dental care for low-income individuals with HIV. Through this project, Sun River Health is seeking to purchase and implement intraoral scanners at eight (8) of the Health Center’s Part C Early Intervention Services (EIS) program sites offering comprehensive dental care to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the dental impressions required in common restorative dental procedures (e.g., dentures, crowns, bridges, etc.). The use of this technology will enable the Health Center to improve the efficiency of restorative dental procedures, reducing the average visit time as well as the number of visits required for each visit, thereby freeing up additional dental appointment times for individuals with HIV and expanding access to comprehensive oral health care services for this population. In addition, the impact of improvements will directly contribute to the Health Center’s overall Part C program goal of improving patient viral load suppression by streamlining the intake for HIV program participants who encounter the program due to the expanded dental service capacity. - Population group to be served: The proposed project targets the more than 2,500 patients with HIV served through Sun River Health’s Part C program in the Hudson Valley, New York City, and Long Island, particularly those receiving their HIV care and treatment at 8 Part C sites offering onsite dental care, as well as low-income and vulnerable residents of the surrounding communities with HIV who are in need of access to quality and affordable dental care. The patients with HIV served at Sun River Health’s project sites reflect those common among underserved populations; they experience substantial economic distress with 93.1% of those whose poverty status is known living below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and 98.3% below 200% FPL. In addition, 43.3% of these patients are Medicaid enrollees and 22.5% are experiencing homelessness.
