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Health

The Foundation promotes the development of a successful and effective system of primary care and works to increase the access, affordability, and quality of primary care for Rhode Island citizens.

Our principal target areas in health are:
  • Programs focused on expansion of health insurance coverage, so that everyone can afford primary care
  • Efforts to positively change the way the system pays for primary care
  • Efforts that integrate oral health and mental health into primary care
  • Programs that improve primary care management of chronic conditions

Both Rapid Access RI and the loan forgiveness program described here are direct outgrowths of our Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island, the driving force behind our work in primary care.

See a complete list of 2009 Health grantees.

Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island

Supports the Foundation’s work in primary care by:
  • Making primary care services available where and when people can use them
  • Making affordable medications available in connection with primary care
  • Increasing awareness and education about the importance of primary care and taking personal responsibility for healthcare behaviors


Rapid Access Rhode Island: Increasing access to primary care


It’s Saturday afternoon. Your toddler is cranky and crying due to a sore, red throat. Your pediatrician’s office is closed for the weekend. Do you wait until Monday to call the pediatrician or do you take your child to the emergency room?

Residents of Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence now have another option: Rapid Access Rhode Island.

An innovative partnership between Providence Community Health Centers, Blackstone Valley Community Health Care, and The Providence Center, Rapid Access Rhode Island is designed to increase access to primary care services through increased evening and weekend hours, the co-location of behavioral health and primary care services, and expanded services to patients.

 Providence Community Health Centers
A young patient of the Providence Community Health Centers is one of hundreds of Rhode Islanders who benefit from the services of Rapid Access Rhode Island, an innovative program supported by the Foundation's Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island. Photo courtesy Providence Community Health  
The lack of access to primary care – in locations and during hours that are convenient to working people and families – often results in patients seeking care in emergency departments, often at considerably greater costs than care delivered in a primary care setting. The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that nationally more than $18 billion could be save annually if avoidable visits to emergency rooms were redirected to a primary care setting like a health center

Blackstone Valley Community Health Center (BVCHC) has provided extended hours at its medical office at 42 Park Place in Pawtucket since January. “What we’re seeing pretty consistently so far are the symptomatic visits you’d expect,” says Jerald Fingerut, M.D., medical director, citing such ailments as sore throats, headaches, abdominal pain, and the need for medication refills.

BVCHC, which is marketing its increased hours as Express Health Care, served an average of seven patients per week in January during its evening and Saturday hours; an average of 15 per week in February; and an average of nearly 17 per week in March.

“I think we’re seeing a reasonable number of people at this stage of the project. A good percentage of our patients know to call here first, but we’re also seeing new patients. And we’re seeing more and more uninsured people. We anticipate that with fuller weekend hours, we’ll see a larger increase in our numbers,” states Ray Lavoie, executive director of BVCHC, of the plan to add Sunday hours.

“Our biggest hurdle has been in recruiting physicians to staff weekends and evenings,” Dr. Fingerut notes of the need for doctors with backgrounds in areas such as family practice or emergency medicine. “There absolutely are not enough primary care physicians,” he stresses.

"Primary care is critically important in providing preventive health services, in coordinating all of a patient’s medical care, and in reducing inappropriate – and vastly more expensive – emergency room usage.” - Owen Heleen, vice president for grant programs

BVCHC and Providence Community Health Centers will tackle the other goals of this new project in the coming months by partnering with The Providence Center to provide on-site behavioral health services at the community health centers and by establishing two Rapid Access Rhode Island Health Clinics in their service areas where all primary care services, as well as on-site radiology, diagnostic testing, and behavioral health care, will be available.

Owen Heleen, vice president for grant programs at the Foundation, says, “This project absolutely addresses our key goals in health by increasing access to primary health care for Rhode Islanders and by integrating it with behavioral health services. Primary care is critically important in providing preventive health services, in coordinating all of a patient’s medical care, and in reducing inappropriate – and vastly more expensive – emergency room usage.”

For more information, http://www.blackstonechc.org


Loan forgiveness program: Addressing Rhode Island’s shortage of primary care physicians


When she was in junior high, Kimberly Dodd – one of four inaugural physicians selected for the new Rhode Island Primary Care Loan Forgiveness Program – witnessed a school janitor having a heart attack. “From there, I started to think about going into medicine,” she shares.
Raised in Riverside, one of three children of working class parents, she was part of a large extended family “who all lived within three miles of each other…until one uncle made a break for Garden City,” she explains, laughing.

Dr. Dodd earned undergraduate degrees from Boston University and Rhode Island College, in economics and biology, respectively, before enrolling in the Boston University School of Medicine. She graduated in 2002, and then served a residency and fellowship in her chosen field, geriatrics.

 Kimberly Dodd, M.D. with patient
Loan Forgiveness recipient Dr. Kimberly Dodd with a patient at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket. “I believe that my training as a geriatrician will allow me to provide primary care for an underserved population,” says Dr. Dodd. Photo courtesy Memorial Hospital.
“Through my experiences with my own grandparents, I know firsthand the challenges facing families who care for frail elders in Rhode Island. I believe that my training as a geriatrician will allow me to provide primary care for an underserved population and to assist those who care for elders to navigate a complex medical system. It is my hope that as a primary care physician in geriatric medicine, I will be able to help my patients age with the dignity and grace to which every individual is entitled,” Dr. Dodd noted on her application.

Earlier this year, Dr. Dodd received an appointment to Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island where her days are filled with appointments in the geriatrics clinic, conducting geriatric assessments, serving on nursing home and home care panels, and teaching residents. Of the fast-paced environment, she says simply, “That’s what we train for.

“This is a wonderful opportunity – the position at Memorial, coming back to Rhode Island, and getting the loan relief is just tremendous,” Dr. Dodd concludes.

The loan forgiveness program was created in 2009 when a coalition of local organizations – The Rhode Island Foundation, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Medical Society – joined forces to address the state’s shortage of primary care physicians and other professionals. The Rhode Island Student Loan Authority administers the program.


“This is a wonderful opportunity – the position at Memorial, coming back to Rhode Island, and getting the loan relief is just tremendous." - Kimberly Dodd, M.D.


Nationally and locally there is a shortage of primary care physicians. A report issued by the American College of Physicians noted, “Primary care, the backbone of the nation’s health care system, is at grave risk of collapse.” A 2008 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that only two percent of students graduating from medical school plan to practice primary care. Currently, 66,000 Rhode Islanders are without primary care physicians or facilities.

“Dr. Dodd exemplifies the ideal candidate for the loan forgiveness program. She is committed to primary care and, having been raised in Rhode Island and having family here, was eager to return ‘home.’ And like most medical school graduates, she has a significant loan burden that the program can help address,” explains Owen Heleen, vice president for grant programs at the Foundation. “We’re delighted that we were able to launch this program as part of our Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island, and that we have attracted both wonderful funding partners and outstanding applicants. This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a sustainable resource for primary care professionals in Rhode Island.”