Lakeland Regional Health – Lakeland Regional Health Family Health Center

What is it?

Lakeland Regional Health Family Health Center (FHC) opened in July 2012 to provide underserved patients with a medical home at which to stay well and receive treatment for chronic conditions. The FHC is a medical clinic open seven days a week to provide high-quality, low-cost primary care. The interdisciplinary Family Health Center team provides a holistic, rather than symptom-focused, approach to address patient needs. Additionally, the FHC collaborates with a number of organizations to ensure well-planned and coordinated continuation of care.

Who is it for?

The majority of the target population consists of uninsured, underinsured or Medicaid patients who live in Florida’s Polk County. It is the seventh poorest suburban county in the country, with high unemployment, low income levels and low education levels.

Why do they do it?

Today, Polk County has only 61 primary care physicians for every 100,000 residents compared with 83 in Tampa Bay and 97 in Florida. Consequently, many people do not have a “medical home” because they have been unable to establish a physician/patient relationship with a primary care doctor. Access is likewise difficult for patients who may be on Medicaid, or are underinsured, or do not have health insurance. As a result, many such individuals forego preventive care and evidence-based management of their chronic diseases, instead seeking symptom-based relief via Lakeland Regional’s emergency department (ED). Consequently, the Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center ED is the busiest single-site ED in the state of Florida, with 212,744 annual visits in 2015.

Impact

On a one-year rolling rate, with the latest data coming from June 2016, the FHC has:

• Sustained an approximately 75 percent rate of diabetics with a controlled A1c (sugar level) over the last 2 years

• Realized a 10 percent increase in the number of patients with diagnosed hypertension keeping blood pressure under control

• Realized a 5.7 percent increase in the number of patients with diagnosed diabetes keeping blood pressure under control

Lakeland Regional Health Family Health Center providers have completed 73,200 primary care visits in the community since its inception.

Contact: Lauren Parkes
Manager, Community Health Outreach
Telephone: 863-687-1100, ext. 2298
Email: lauren.parkes@mylrh.org