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ABOUT US

Central Virginia Health Services’ mission is to provide safe, accessible, affordable, comprehensive, high quality, and culturally sensitive health services to the people we serve.

Our Values:

• Patient centered
• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Continuous improvement
• Compassion

In November, 1970, the day after Thanksgiving, Central Virginia Community Health Center opened, operating out of three trailers, one each in Buckingham, Fluvanna and Cumberland Counties. Since then, CVHS has steadily grown to include a total of fourteen sites serving fifteen counties and three cities. In addition to the original counties, CVHS also serves Charlotte, Brunswick, Caroline, Prince Edward, Prince George, Southern Albemarle, Charles City, King William, King and Queen, Louisa, Richmond, and Westmoreland.  The cities it serves include Fredericksburg, Petersburg and Hopewell.  While each site grew out of a unique community need, all of them were created in response to the need for accessible, affordable health care. Services are not restricted to the residents of these specific service areas, and CVHS providers’ welcome patients from any locality.

The region covered by CVHS extends from Brunswick County in south central Virginia to the northeast, to an area known as the Northern Neck, a peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The southern part of Virginia had suffered economically with the decline of the tobacco industry, and the prevailing poverty rates are indicative of the long term impact that decline has had on this region’s residents.

In addition to being medically underserved, many of the sites are also in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA).  CVHS has had a number of providers who have benefited from the National Health Service Corp’s loan repayment program.  Like other community health centers, CVHS is located in medically underserved areas.  The nature of the underserved may vary (poverty, geographic isolation, too few primary care providers), but CVHS is committed to helping residents of its service area get the health care they need, where they need it and in a way that ensures its patients are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their life circumstances.

Access
Access to affordable health care for the uninsured or underinsured is the number one issue in the 2002 Community Needs Assessment conducted by the Central Virginia Health Planning Agency.  In all counties and cities where CVHS operates, except Fredericksburg, there are no other safety net providers.  Petersburg, Hopewell and Fredericksburg all have local hospitals and thus have a larger number of primary care physicians than the counties in the CVHS service area.  However, these physicians do not treat many uninsured patients, so the vast majority of patients seen in these  CVHS sites are uninsured.  Additionally, although these hospitals may see the uninsured in their respective Emergency Departments, CVHS patients who need specialty services are most often referred to Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (VCUHS) in Richmond (one of the state’s two academic medical centers) because they offer specialty services and advanced treatments (such as oncology) on a sliding fee.

With very rare exceptions, Virginia’s public health departments do not offer primary health care and none of those rare exceptions are in the CVHS service area.  While Virginia does have a number of free clinics, none of them are in close proximity to the CVHS sites, except in Fredericksburg. In Fredericksburg, the free clinic and our center work together cooperatively and refer patients to the most appropriate setting to meet their needs.  Elsewhere, the closest free clinics to any site are at some distance (at least a forty minute drive) from our sties.

Access to affordable medications follows as a close second to Access to care as a critical need of residents of the CVHS communities.  The numbers of people who cite the cost of medications as the reason for not getting prescriptions filled is high and rising steadily.  In the service area, chronic diseases, especially high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, are very high.  To manage these appropriately and to ensure positive patient outcomes, access to affordable medications is very important to the affected patients.

Patient population
For all CVHS sites, the targeted population is the entire population of the locality; however, emphasis is placed on reaching those under 200% of poverty. Nearly 40% are at or below the Federal Poverty Line.  Anyone who needs care is welcomed at any site.  Each CVHS site targets the unique needs of its own community.  Medically underserved patients in the CVHS service area may be underserved for reasons of income, lack of insurance, geographic distance or language.

Over 60% of CVHS patients are between 20 - 64.  About two-thirds of the patients are female.  In 2010, CVHS provided care for more than 48,000 patients. CVHS is seeing a change in the demographic make-up of its population, especially in the Hispanic population.  However, there are vast differences between the sites in terms of race and ethnicity.  Because of this, CVHS makes a concerted effort in its hiring practices to reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the patient population.