Community Assessment of Expansion Location
The Kim Health Center plans an expansion assessment for the Kim Health Center in a designated CDC high-need index zip code that is best served by the clinic resources and has the potential to be well received by the community. The project involves two action items: test sites via a mobile clinical unit to gauge community response to available healthcare for the uninsured and building community partnerships within designated zip codes to ensure expansion is a community-led endeavor. The community partnership pilot would incorporate relevant community assessments and recognize that access to medical and dental care for the vulnerable in our region needs development. The clinic is actively expanding and developing resources to meet this need. Kim Health Center’s target patient base is the working uninsured between the ages of 19-64, an often-overlooked patient base documented to have a high disproportionate burden of chronic illness. Their patient base is also documented to have higher costs of medical care due to delayed care-seeking because of an uninsured status. The prevention of escalation of illness or emergency room use is individual and community-level cost efficiency.