DENTON — Sara Rich, CEO and president of Choptank Community Health, met with the Caroline County Commissioners to talk about its annual report and the new Federalsburg Health Center. It will be serving pediatric and behavioral health patients.
“Last year our Choptank providers and our care teams took care of 32,000 patients throughout our health system,” Rich said, “that represents medical, dental and behavioral health service lines.”
The Federalsburg facility is replacing the old one and will be 21,000 square feet and have five wings.
“There are two wings for medical, two for dental and two that are for staff,” Rich said.
“We are making a lot of progress on the Federalsburg Health Center,” she said. “We anticipate it being open for patient care before the end of this year.”
The new facility will have a mental health component too.
“Behavioral health will be integrated throughout those medical and dental wings as well,” she said.
“I am particularly happy to see it go in Federalsburg,” Commissioner Larry Porter said. “Good job. Very, very, very sincerely saying that.”
Porter said health care is important to the community and noted the way Choptank Community Health has been incorporated into the community in the schools.
“You touched about every organization,” he said. “Thanks for being a very good partner.”
The health care organization is celebrating 25 years of serving the school-based population and providing medical, dental and behavioral health in Caroline County Public Schools.
“Our claim to fame is that we are the only county in the state of Maryland that has a school-based health center in every one of our public schools,” Rich said. “We are not only offering medical services and dental preventative services, but we have also added nutrition through having a dietician available to meet with our students to provide education and counseling.”
She said that they have added behavioral health based therapists in the schools. In the last school year, they have had 8,769 medical visits and 1,135 behavioral health visits.
“So that is about 9,900 visits right here in Caroline County. We have just been approved for a pediatric dental residency. This will start in July. Three pediatric residents will join Choptank Community Health,” she said.
She highlighted the mobile health units used to reach a vulnerable population in Caroline County including guests of His Hope Ministries. They have hired a Spanish-speaking nurse practitioner for the Denton office.
“We have hired a dentist for Goldsboro. We have hired a dental hygienist who is also in Goldsboro. We have a dentist that will be joining Federalsburg next month,” Rich said.
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