Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Teaching Health Center Planning and Development Program - Eligible Entity Type: Federally Qualified Health Center: Community Health Centers of Pinellas DBA Evara Health Project Director Contact Information: Elodie Dorso, CEO/President Contact Phone Number: Phone: 727-824-8100 E-Mail Address: edorso@hcnetwork.org Website Address: http://evarahealth.org Proposed Residency Type: General Dentistry Residency Funding preference statement: Affiliation with an area health education center program. Population Target Area: Pinellas County, Florida Funding Amount Requested: $500,000 Projected Number of Residents in the Program: 3 Residents per year Expected CODA Accreditation and Residency Matriculation Dates: Q4 2023 Community Health Centers of Pinellas, Inc. DBA Evara Health, is a not-for-profit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) which has been providing affordable, primary health care services to the residents of Pinellas County, Florida for forty years. Evara operates sixteen (16) health centers throughout Pinellas County, providing comprehensive healthcare services to low-income, uninsured, and underserved populations. In 2021, Evara served 61,539 individual patients with over 212,000 visits. During that time, Evara had 5 dental centers that completed nearly 23,869 in-person and 704 virtual visits providing combined dental services for over 12,238 individual patients. Pinellas County, Florida is a designated Health Professions Shortage Area (HPSA) having the highest score of 26 for dentistry in Medically Underserved Areas (MUA) and Populations (MUP). Evara proposes to establish a new accredited community-based dental residency program in general dentistry. The proposed Pinellas Dental Residency program will be an all-encompassing learning experience for resident physicians. The overall goal of the program is to establish a General Dentistry Residency in an ambulatory health center that produces physicians who are competent to provide high quality dental and oral health care, with special expertise in serving vulnerable, diverse, and underserved populations. This will be one of three general residency programs in Pinellas County. The specific objectives of this project are: 1. Develop a comprehensive General Dentistry Residency based in a HPSA that prepares residents for careers in medically underserved areas and to medically underserved populations 2. Achieve accreditation through the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) 3. Increase the number of dentists who are recruited and retained for practice in underserved community settings. To accomplish the stated objectives, Evara will collaborate with the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine (NSU-CDM) for the THCPCP program. NSU College of Dental Medicine will provide Evara Health Center's residents and faculty with access to NSU's years of educational experience and delivery of oral health care. The healthcare residents will support the goal of supporting the training of family dental residents in a community based interprofessional healthcare environment. Graduates will be prepared to deliver high quality care in underserved communities and will have developed competencies to serve diverse populations and communities that address all aspects of healthcare delivery.
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).