Youngstown health center wants to take over Alliance clinic

The Alliance center would also serve southwest Mahoning County.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown Community Health Center wants to take over Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Alliance and make it a YCHC satellite similar to the one in Warren.
Dr. Ronald Dwinnells, chief executive officer of YCHC, has applied for a $650,000-a-year Labor Health and Human Services grant to open the health clinic in Alliance in Stark County.
If approved, YCHC would be locked into the grant program for at least three years before having to apply for renewal, he said.
Dr. Dwinnells said the people of Alliance need a health clinic and it would also serve communities in the southwest corner of Mahoning County such as Beloit and Sebring.
Don't have health care
According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, 41 percent of Alliance's 30,000 residents are 200 percent below the federal poverty level and do not have access to health care.
The per capita income of Alliance residents is about $15,185 a year, NACHC said.
Because the one physician in the Alliance area who saw low-income or uninsured patients had to close down because he could not afford malpractice insurance premiums, many patients do not have access to a regular primary care physician or cannot afford health care and use the local hospital, Dr. Dwinnells said.
Benefits of centers
Health centers can manage chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and they can help keep down the health care costs by keeping people healthy and out of the hospital, Dr. Dwinnells said.
YCHC can provide care for about $1.25 a day per patient, or just over $400 a year he said.
The annual budget for the Alliance health center would be about $1.4 million. The amount not covered by the grant would be made up the same way as YCHC in Youngstown; through fees and insurance, Dr. Dwinnells said.
The YCHC annual budget is $3.5 million, while the federal grant is about $1 million, said Dr. Dwinnells, a pediatrician.
He said YCHC went from being about 90 percent grant dependent in 1997 down to 30 percent now, with an ultimate goal of 20 percent to 25 percent grant dependent.
Dr. Dwinnells said Good Samaritan does not have federal financial support and depends on volunteerism. It is at 405 S. Linden Ave.