Thundermist receives $390K grant for community health access teams

THE THUNDERMIST Health Center will launch a three-year plan to bring community health access teams to communities it serves using three grants totaling $390,000 from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust.
THE THUNDERMIST Health Center will launch a three-year plan to bring community health access teams to communities it serves using three grants totaling $390,000 from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust.

WARWICK – The Thundermist Health Center will launch a three-year plan to bring community health access teams to communities it serves using three grants totaling $390,000 from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust.
Thundermist Health Center is a non-profit community health center providing primary health care services in West Warwick, Woonsocket and South County.
The center has already begun to implement teams in Woonsocket and West Warwick, and will expand the program to South County later this year.
Partnering with Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Thundermist has identified 600 patients who will benefit from the team model in year one, adding four more teams by year three.
The interdisciplinary community health access teams are comprised of community health workers, behavioral health specialists, and nurse care managers who work with patients in their homes, in the community, or in the health center. Goals are to improve access to care and enhance the health of patients while reducing the high cost of care.
Thundermist also will collaborate with the Providence-based nonprofit Rhode Island Quality Institute to use new capabilities of CurrentCare, Rhode Island’s statewide health information exchange, the nonprofit said, in order to maximize effective response to patients.
Chuck Jones, Thundermist president and CEO said the nonprofit is grateful to the trust for its contribution.
“We know that many of our patients’ health problems have their root cause in a lack of community supports and unhealthy surroundings,” said Jones. “The traditional office-based model of care has failed them. By augmenting their existing supports with caring, committed, community-based staff, who are tightly integrated with their medical home and other community organizations, we can make significant positive impacts on their health.”
Laura Adams, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Quality Institute said the team-based projects will help improve care while meeting her agency’s mission of improving health through better care and lower cost.
“CurrentCare is an emerging standard of care in Rhode Island and an essential part of the shift to a more collaborative, connected, team-based model of care,” she said.

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