In The News

Valley View Health Center (VVHC), 621 Broadway Street in Portsmouth, was proactive about National Health Centers Week, welcoming Congressman Brad Wenstrup and the community out for an open house event held at the Center on Friday.

VVHC in Portsmouth, is a state of the art medical facility, which provides a myriad of services. The services are available to all, leaving no one behind, including most private insurance plans, Medicaid, and self-pays. No one is turned away. All are welcome. Cindy Balzer, director of the Portsmouth VVHC, said they want to make the community aware of their existence and location.

“We are actually celebrating National Health Center Week and in doing so we wanted to promote our Health Centers to the community,” Balzer said. “We want to make sure that the community is aware that we are here and have various programs here today to present. This is really an open house event, a time for us to share information, such as health information, smoking cessation, information about our medical and dental services here at the Health Center and also our ability to help individuals sign up for the Affordable Care Act, or Medicaid. We have a navigator on the site that has the ability to do that for our clients. We can also go ahead and schedule appointments today for both dental and medical here at this location.”

Valley View also has Health Centers in West Portsmouth, Manchester, Waverly, Piketon, and Jackson, and their services are ever expanding, according to Balzer. Other Valley View Health Center staff and constituents were present at the open house, including Keith Pitts, executive director of Community Action (CAO) of Pike County, Kelley Pate, 340 B Compliance Coordinator CAO of Pike County. Julie Dirossi-King, Chief Operating Officer of Ohio Association of Community Health Centers, accompanied by her colleague, Heather Porter, traveled from Columbus to attend the open house event.

“We continue to expand services, we started out as medical and prenatal services here, expanded into dental and we are expanding into Behavioral Health, we received a substance abuse grant and we will be fully contracting and providing services,” Balzer said. “The grant is for $325,000, and will provide services at all six of our locations. We provide services for prenatal care and services for drug addicted mothers. Dr. Darren Adams comes over and is able to provide medication and follow those individuals closely during their pregnancy. So we have a lot of services that we want to promote today.”

Wenstrup said he was impressed with Valley View Health Center.

“I am here today because I am with the Second District of Ohio, as a doctor in Congress I like to see how we are working to help the people in our communities,” Wenstrup said. “There is a great need today across America for the work that is done in federally-qualified health centers and so it pertains to what we are doing in Washington. So, it is always good to visit and to get input from the people who are working in the trenches, hear how it is working and to see all of the good work that they do.”

Comprehensive health care should be a comfortable experience, Wenstrup said.

“For example Valley View has the dental clinic, something that was not always part of clinics,” Wenstrup said. “There is a lack of dental care for so many Americans and just to have these vision and medical services available, especially for kids is great. Comprehensive care should be a place that people feel comfortable coming to, and be able to have a relationship with a doctor one on one, which I think is important to a lot of people.”

Reach Portia Williams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or on Twitter @PortiaWillPDT.

Click here to read the original article in The Portsmouth Daily Times.