The Community Health Centers of Burlington (CHCB) are leaders in providing quality care to patients in Chittenden and southern Grand Isle counties, regardless of income or life circumstance.
At an unprecedented time like this, it has been especially critical for CHCB to act quickly to ensure we can meet the needs of our patients as safely as possible. As the only federally-granted Homeless Healthcare Program in the entire state, the area’s primary location for immigrant health services, and as Chittenden County’s largest “spoke” in the hub-and-spoke model of addiction recovery care, we serve some of the area’s most vulnerable populations.
In the face this crisis, our leadership teams acted quickly to reduce in-person services, consolidate our locations, and transition as many appointments as possible to telehealth technology. By serving patients over the phone or by video conference, we can continue to expand access to patients in need while reducing the risk of cross-contamination and doing our part to “flatten the curve.” Thanks to telehealth technology, we have continued to be able to offer medical, psychiatric and counseling appointments.
A large part of our success in facing this public health threat so far has been collaboration – internally and externally. Our IT Team rapidly got the technology up and running to make telehealth technology possible, as well as put systems in place to enable as many of our staff as possible to work remotely; our Communications Team has worked hard to push out health information to patients through our website, social media and e-newsletters; our Scheduling and Front Desk staff have helped guide many patients through the fear and anxiety that so many of us are feeling right now; and overall, so many of our employees have worked together to finesse efficiencies in our new work flows, with many stepping into alternative roles to assist wherever they can. Additionally, we have been working with the city, state and nonprofit partners to operate a new drive-through testing site in South Hero, organize a subset mobile unit van to provide testing/outreach for vulnerable populations, and provide medical consultation and staffing as a recovery site gets up and running.
“We’re all in this together” isn’t just a platitude, it’s a critical truth and one that will ensure we all get through this together.
