La Pine Community Health Center (LCHC) made difficult changes to operations yesterday by reducing its workforce in effort to protect its ability to provide care to the residents of La Pine and surrounding communities as it awaits further direction from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
While many Community Health Centers (CHC’s) across the nation are closing their doors in response to issues accessing federal funds, LCHC is working proactively to preserve services to avoid interruption to care for its patients. Erin Trapp, chief executive officer, stated, “We will do everything we can to keep our patients from experiencing the effects of the Federal funding freeze, as it pertains to the delivery of healthcare. We believe this will be a temporary change and plan to restore our workforce soon.”
There have been rumors that the La Pine School-Based Health Center (SBHC), sponsored by La Pine Community Health Center, was shut down abruptly yesterday because of the aforementioned change to operations, which is false. The SBHC was closed yesterday due to a power outage and will continue to operate on its regular hours of operation once power is restored.
LCHC’s leadership team continues to monitor the ever-changing federal funding landscape and will provide updates when necessary.
About La Pine Community Health Center:
La Pine Community Health Center (LCHC) is a nonprofit, Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Patient-Centered Primary Care Home that provides 360-degree care to the communities of South Deschutes, North Klamath and West Lake Counties. LCHC provides care to the commercially insured, uninsured and underinsured. Some of the services that are provided by the health center are primary medical care for all ages, point of care nursing, behavioral health, health education and outreach resources such as transportation to appointments, assistance with prescriptions and Oregon Health Plan enrollment. Also offered at LCHC is access to specialty care, such as orthopedics, podiatry and dermatology.
