LYNN — Lynn Community Health Center commemorated the organization’s accomplishments in the past year and honored staff and community members for their impact on health care in the city with the announcement of the organization’s annual awards.
During his remarks on the state of the organization, Interim CEO Geoff Pechinsky noted that in 2023 the organization, which cares for more than 40,000 primary-care patients, opened a new in-house pharmacy, which he said has already completed 76,000 prescriptions while offering a growing list of immunizations.
Pechinsky noted that the organization made strides in school-based care for youth patients. They have also expanded urgent care and maternity service, delivering 635 babies in the past year.
The winner of the 2023 Andrea Gaulzetti Award for Excellence in Community Health was nurse Vicky Casides, who was selected by the committee.
The award is meant to commemorate those who demonstrate a commitment to the organization, innovative thinking, mentorship, personal growth, and dedication to patients.
“I know who Andrea was and how much she cared for LCHC,“ Casides, who has been at LCHC for 15 years, said. “I’m very honored. I wasn’t expecting it.”
Casides is a member of the LCHC Sunflower Team, which is tasked with family medicine and treating those who face addiction.
In support of her award, Casides was praised by co-workers for her compassion and dedication to giving patients the best care possible by connecting them with the correct LCHC department.
The winner of the 2023 John S. Moran Award for Community Service was clinical social worker Virginia Leigh, who is currently working for Lynn Public Schools to address social and emotional health for students as the assistant director of the Social and Emotional Learning Department.
“I was very pleasantly surprised and so honored,“ Leigh, who previously worked with LCHC, said. “Getting to be recognized was unexpected and very sweet.”
Board member Laura Gallant presented the award and praised Leigh for her dedication to Lynn’s community throughout the years.
“Great social workers see the struggles of the people they serve as profound representations of the flaws and injustices of the societies where they live, and they seek to help their clients change their lives, as well as seek to change the world where their clients live,” Gallant said. “Virginia Leigh is one of these great social workers.”
Looking toward the next year, Pechinsky touted that the Deborah Smith Walsh Recuperative Care Center will soon be doubling in size, and added that LCHC will be acquiring an outreach van to provide the outreach team with a mobile examination site.
LCHC also plans to have an expansion of pharmacy services and further development of substance-use-disorder care offerings.
Pechinsky said above all, LCHC will continue with the approach it has held for more than a half-century.
“We will continue to serve our primary mission — taking care of our patients and community regardless of ability to pay,” Pechinsky said. “We need to remember the roots of where we started in 1971, to where we are today, and this common thread.”
