By Dr. Candy Rinehart
“Choosing between necessities and life-saving medications became a stark reality.”
Shelly Martin is a board member for our College of Nursing’s Total Health and Wellness (THW) primary care practice in Tower 12 at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s East Hospital. She is also the caretaker for her parents, John and Gwen Billups, who make just enough money to not qualify for financial assistance programs for medications.
Shelly told us that “their prescription medication expenses have been exorbitant, totaling over $2,500 per month” to treat a variety of chronic conditions. Her father’s mental health started to decline.
The family approached their trusted physician, Dr. Faraz Ahmad, about the hardship. Dr. Ahmad engaged Chris, a pharmacist in the THW organization. As Shelly tells it, “Chris played a pivotal role in securing a lifeline for my parents. By leveraging the resources available through the 340B program, he significantly reduced the cost of their prescriptions. Notably, my parents' blood thinner medication, previously priced at $500 for a 30-day supply, was drastically reduced to less than $20 for a 90-day supply.
“The impact of this intervention cannot be overstated – it quite literally saved my father's life.”
That kind of community service and community impact is what gets us up every morning. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designated THW as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in 2017. As a community-based health center, opportunities to improve access to care for primary and preventative health services are the chief focus. This includes integrating and expanding services to meet the needs of the community.
The model that we work through every day involves practitioners from several different health science disciplines, all working together to support each patient from a holistic point of view. This interdisciplinary, team-based approach to healthcare has produced great outcomes for patients and filled a void in preventative care in the community. We are proud to have received recognition from HRSA as an “Access Enhancer” and for reducing racial health disparities among our patient population. Our Self-Monitored Blood Pressure Program is showing great potential for improving hypertension control rates, and the American Heart Association presented us with “silver” status through its Target:BP program.
We are now working to expand services to help more patients and families live healthier lives. Recent expansion includes the January 2023 addition of primary and mental health care at St. Vincent Family Services on East Main Street in Columbus. In October 2023, the health center expanded to Tower 15 at East Hospital, where women’s health and primary care services are provided. A month later, the existing services at Outpatient Care East Family Medicine became an HRSA-approved health center site. Services at this fourth site on Taylor Avenue include primary care, walk-in care, a Family Physician Residency program and a gender affirming clinic. Patients at all four sites have access to the 340B pharmacy services that assisted Shelly and her family.
Our expansion plans for the future are just as exciting. Those plans include a six-operatory dental clinic, an optometry clinic (with a full glasses gallery) and broadening of primary care and mental health services at the Taylor Avenue site. We are also exploring opportunities for additional health center delivery sites at existing Ohio State primary care clinics located in areas that are economically or medically vulnerable.
All of this can happen because of a dedicated team of professionals who want to answer their calling to care every day in our communities. I am so proud to work with this team who, as Shelly said, “exemplify the essence of humanitarianism and serve as a beacon of hope for those facing similar challenges.”
Candy Rinehart, DNP, APRN-CNP, FAANP, is the chief executive officer and clinic director of Total Health and Wellness and the Federally Qualified Health Center. She and her team were featured in November 2023 on PBS News Weekend as part of its “Critical Care: The Future of Nursing” series.
