“I came to learn and see what we can do to replicate this model,” Ivey said to attendees.
ROCKFORD, Ala. (PRWEB)
December 13, 2019
Gov. Kay Ivey praised Accordia Health’s newly opened clinic as an example of how the medical community can better serve Alabama’s rural communities.
At Ivey’s request, she toured the facility on Tuesday, Dec. 10. She was joined by state and local dignitaries, including legislators, town and Coosa County leaders, and judges from the region. The tour was led by Tuerk Schlesinger, CEO of AltaPointe Health, a regional behavioral healthcare and psychiatric system that also provides primary medical care through Accordia Health clinics in Bayou La Batre and, now, in Rockford.
“I came to learn and see what we can do to replicate this model,” Ivey said to attendees.
Accordia Health is recognized by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration as a federally qualified health center, meaning that it is a safety-net provider of health care regardless of patients’ ability to pay. Discounts are offered on services based on a sliding fee scale depending on household size and income.
Medical services offered at the clinic include treatment for allergic reactions, flu, fever, and sinus infections; management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, obesity, and asthma; family planning; annual check-ups; and medical screenings and lab testing.
Schlesinger told the governor that with the addition of Accordia Health to its services, AltaPointe can address patients’ physical as well as their mental health needs.
“It’s an integrated care model, where you have primary healthcare and mental healthcare at the same location,” he said. “When someone comes to the clinic, they take a screening test to detect problems they might be having related to their mental health. We send a social worker in at the end of each visit to do the discharge, at which he or she can touch on these problems and perhaps suggest a referral.”
AltaPointe provides care to more than 34,000 people per year in Baldwin, Mobile, Clay, Coosa, Randolph, Talladega, and Washington counties. It operates two psychiatric hospitals in the Mobile Bay area.
Accordia Health is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. People can call 256-377-8008 or toll-free at 833-921-1810. Phone lines are answered 24/7 by a healthcare professional. Translation services are available.
As a federally qualified health center, the Accordia Health clinic receives HHS funding and has Federal Public Health Service deemed status with respect to certain health or health-related claims, including medical malpractice claims, for itselfand its covered individuals.
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