Ohio community health centers struggle to meet demand

Community health centers throughout the state are seeing a dramatic increase in patients requesting service, leaving many patients to wait weeks for follow-up care (Source: “Patients flock to health centers,” Middletown Journal, Dec. 29, 2008).

"We've seen exponential growth in patients and facilities since 2002,'' said Shawn Frick, director of the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers, which has 147 centers in 44 counties.  "The number of uninsured patients is up 68 percent. Yes, the numbers are increasing, but these are not the numbers we want to see because we are limited in our ability to treat these patients.''

Nationally, 17 million people visited 7,000 nonprofit community health centers this year. Officials expect patient volume to nearly double by 2015, exceeding 30 million.

Although nearly $1 billion in federal funds have been set aside since 2000 to expand services and build more facilities, officials say they are struggling to meet demand for services because of a national shortage of doctors and nurses, fewer of whom are willing to serve the uninsured and underinsured at community centers.