Expanding LCHC breaks new ground

LYNN – Construction of an $11 million addition to the Lynn Community Health Center begins next week, boosted by Monday’s announcement of a $3 million grant from Partners HealthCare.A bevy of elected officials and community leaders – including U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney, Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy – brandished shovels at the ceremonious groundbreaking at 269 Union St.The two-story, 29,300-square-foot expansion of the health center’s existing building will house a walk-in clinic, 10 examination rooms, an isolation unit, nursing triage station and space for behavioral health and social services – all on the ground floor. The second floor and basement will be developed later. When that phase of the project is completed, the total cost will approach $17 million.”You deserve it. You have earned it,” Patrick told the crowd at the groundbreaking. “The health center is vital to the community itself.”Tierney said the new center will have an impact on local education. “Healthcare is really childcare, which means education and community building. Children can’t learn unless they feel good in the first place,” the congressman said.The groundbreaking was a personal and professional victory for Lori Berry, executive director of the health center and chief advocate of its expansion.According to Berry, the project will enable the health center to hire four new primary care physicians, a behavioral health clinician and provide primary care services to 4,000 children and adults who currently have none.As background, she noted that the health center currently services 33,000 of the city’s estimated 89,000 residents, including 45 percent of Lynn children under age 18, giving them dental, medical, specialty and behavioral heath care.The grant from Partners HealthCare, which along with North Shore Medical Center has been affiliated with the Lynn healthcare facility since 1998, will make the expansion a reality. The collaboration is particularly important because Lynn is among the most medically underserved communities in Massachusetts, with a documented shortage of primary care physicians, high incidence of preventable illness, significant poverty and a rapidly growing immigrant population, Berry said.The city’s Hispanic population grew by 35 percent and the black population by 28 percent from 2000-2007.”The Lynn Community Health Center is one of this city’s greatest assets and is leading the way in providing patient care that is easily accessible, of extraordinary quality, and incredibly cost effective,” said Dr. Gary L. Gottlieb, president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare.Magnolia Contreras, chairman of the health center’s $6-million capital campaign, said the Lynn facility also received $1.3 million in federal stimulus funding in June 2009 and is accessing $2.5 million in new markets tax credits through MassDevelopment. Another $400,000 has been raised by individuals, corporations and foundations,” she said.”This is the first construction project of this size in downtown Lynn in many years,” said Patrick, adding that more than 100 jobs will come from the actual construction work and later through the health center’s expanded services. “This is just so many cylinders all going at once. The residents of Lynn are fortunate to have such a vibrant resource that is growing and changing in response to community need.”The health center currently has a staff of 380, including 70 clinicians.Berry said construction will start next week when the site will be fenced and undergo a general cleanup in preparation for the foundation work.The health center was established in 1971. Since moving to the Union Street site in 1993, it has seen exponential growth. In the past two years, an average of 400 new patients arrived each month.The health center is the largest primary care provider in the city, with over 173,000 patient visits last year. It also operates a primary care clinic in West Lynn, a refugee health program, and