MANSFIELD – Healthcare services expanded in Mansfield on Monday with the official opening of a new family care practice downtown.
Third Street Family Health Services cut the ribbon on Five Points Primary Care on Nov. 14, giving the community another option for family healthcare. Jared Pollick, CEO of Third Street Family Health Services, said the new location at 200 Park Ave. West in Mansfield is a convenient location for a lot of Third Street’s patient base.
“We’ve always had an abundance of patients at our main site, so this is giving us some elbow room to stretch out,” Pollick said. “A new location gives us new access to patients.”
Third Street is unique in the local healthcare scene in that it offers a sliding fee scale for patients who are economically challenged. As such, Pollick stated that Third Street collects data to show what percentage of Mansfield’s impoverished population they are reaching.
“We serve about 35 to 40 percent of that population, so we’re not really hitting everyone in our area that we could be providing services to,” Pollick said. “Some of them are using just the emergency department, some are not seeing anyone at all, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid because it can add up a lot of expense overall.”
Pollick explained that health centers that see patients on a consistent basis can save up to 24 percent per patient; Third Street specifically saves around $2,351 per Medicaid patient.
“Annually we save a lot of money for the system by treating patients and keeping them out of the emergency departments,” Pollick said. “Especially ones who are uninsured. Everyone we can keep healthy is a win for everyone.”
No one understands the importance of seeing patients before they get to the emergency department better than Five Points’ three certified family nurse practitioners, Jennifer Schroeder, Courtney Brooks and Emily Bowman. The three women worked together as emergency nurses at OhioHealth Shelby Hospital for nine years and earned their nurse practitioner licenses together before transferring to Third Street.
“We were familiar with the organization and all did clinicals with Third Street, so we knew we liked the company,” Brooks said.
“It all just fell into place,” Schroeder added.
The three nurse practitioners will be working alongside Dr. Joseph Bocka to provide acute care visits similar to urgent care, child wellness check-ups, chronic care visits, as well as physical and sports exams.
“We’re a family practice, so from birth to end of life,” said Bowman. “We are so excited to just start, to build a patient base and serve the community.”
After almost a decade serving in the emergency department, all three women expressed excitement to work with patients outside of just emergencies.
“We’ll see the patient and help them along, and now we can see them back and see how they’re doing,” Brooks said. “It’s nice that we can spend time educating now, and that’s what the community needs.”
Pollick also noted the benefit of having Schroeder, Brooks and Bowman working together both from a working relationship and an experience standpoint.
“They’ve been in the trenches in the emergency department, they really understand the value of what this is,” Pollick said. “And they’ve worked together for so long, it’s such a benefit because they have a real team element and that just makes you enjoy your job.
“We’re very excited about this location and these folks, I think it’s going to be a huge boon for the community at large.”
Five Points Primary Care is currently accepting new patients and walk-in appointments. The facility will host a new patient day on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. where new patients will be given gifts.
