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34 Haverhill Street, Lawrence, MA 01841 Tel: 978-725-7410 Fax: 978-687-2106 EMail: residency@glfhc.org |
| Greater Lawrence Family Health Center | |
The Greater Lawrence Family Health Center was established in 1980 to provide critically needed primary care to the underserved and growing Latino population in Lawrence. Over the years as this population grew so did the Health Center. Currently the Health Center has over 400 employees working in our primary care sites and other programs. Annually our patients make over 120,000 visits for primary and other care. |
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In addition to “providing a network of high quality comprehensive health care services” the Health Center’s mission statement was revised in 1995 to include “training health care professionals to respond to the needs of a culturally diverse population.” This revision of our mission statement is in recognition of the importance of the Family Medicine Residency as a core element of the Health Center. Simply stated, we are committed to: providing culturally sensitive patient care, superb medical education and an environment that is compassionate, understanding and open to continuous improvement. We have met many challenges in the past and will implement effective strategies in the future to assure we remain successful in meeting our mission. Robert
J. Ingala |
| Community Health Centers |
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Before community health centers were established, the impoverished and uninsured had few healthcare alternatives; preventive healthcare was nearly nonexistent. The need for primary care led to the inception of community health centers. As part of President Johnson's administration’s “War on Poverty,” the first community health center opened at the Columbia Point Housing Project in Boston in 1965. Shortly afterwards, the Office of Economic Opportunity helped establish other health centers across the country. In the past thirty years, the number of community health centers has grown from a handful to more than 1000, providing medical care in areas where it would be otherwise unavailable.
Community health centers are nonprofit
corporations with boards of directors composed of 50% patients and 50% community
leaders. The mission of health centers is threefold:
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