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Date: January 8, 2010 To: Missoula City Council From: Kim Mansch, Executive Director Re: Partnership Health Center Expansion Partnership Health Center addresses the need for affordable comprehensive health care among our region’s low and moderate income population. People living in western Montana face some of the greatest barriers in the nation to accessing health care, including a shortage of providers, lack of health insurance, and the overall economy of the region. Partnership Health Center has provided high quality, affordable health care to the medically underserved for nineteen years. Currently, we serve approximately 12,000 patients annually; however, according to the Montana Primary Care Association, there were approximately 29,000 residents in Missoula County who in the past year did not receive basic primary care due to the barriers experienced by our target population. We are receiving approximately 200 requests per week from new patients looking to access care and the expansion of our services is essential to meet their needs. To address the issues facing our community, we identified a new facility twice the size of our existing facility. The remodel of the larger facility will allow us to expand the medical, dental, pharmaceutical and mental health services that the Center already delivers. Originally, we had intended to sell our existing facility to offset the remodel costs of the new building. However, we have been fortunate to receive four grants over the past year, requiring us to reevaluate our space needs. Our new grants include the expansion of our mental health, pharmacy and Ryan White (HIV/AIDS) Programs. Additionally, we have implemented a Chronic Disease Case Management Program in partnership with the State of Montana Medicaid Division that will serve a five county region. As a result of our expansion and growth over the past two years, our staff has increased by 30% from 46 full-time equivalent employees to 65. To meet our space needs, we now recognize that both buildings will be required to house all of our services. While we have not established which services will be housed in each building yet, we have worked extensively with our architects to determine that the Creamery Building will not meet all of our space needs. Furthermore, our existing facility has low debt requirements and is structurally sound; financially it makes sense to retain the building. ---PAGE BREAK--- To ensure continued fiscal responsibility as we expand our services, Partnership Health Center will transition services to the Creamery Building incrementally over the next few years. This transition will ensure that Partnership Health Center maintains a healthy debt ratio while continuing to emphasize efficient daily operations. We will continue to adhere to the business model as recommended by the Federal Bureau of Primary Health Care. This model emphasizes a diversified base of funds, a decreasing reliance on federal funding, and the maintenance of a diverse payor mix to maximize patient revenue. All of our new expansions contribute to the required base operating expenditures as a result of our growth. Expansion of our services is absolutely critical to the well-being of the citizens of Missoula. The delivery of health care in the community health center model has demonstrated extensive cost savings and has produced favorable health outcomes. By supporting Partnership Health Center’s existing delivery of health care, individuals in need of services will receive them, costs will continue to be maintained, and health outcomes will continue to improve. Thank you for your continued support as we move forward with the expansion of Partnership Health Center!