Catholic Charities Joins with St. Joseph Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine and St. Agnes HealthCare to Create New Health Services Center in Fells Point for Immigrants

November 28, 2007

November 28, 2007 - On December 4th at 8:30 a.m., 2007, Catholic Charities will sign a formal Consortium Agreement with the leaders of St. Joseph Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and St. Agnes HealthCare to develop a Health Services Center that will focus on the needs of Hispanic and immigrant people who have no health care coverage.

The new Health Services Center is expected to open in the first quarter of 2008. The new Center will be located on the second floor of Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Apostolate at 430 South Broadway in Fells Point.

For the past ten years, St. Joseph Medical Center has provided primary health care for adults twice a week at this location through its traveling St. Clare Medical Outreach coach. They will move these services into the new Center, where Johns Hopkins Medicine will provide pediatric care and St. Agnes Healthcare will provide obstetrical and gynecological care.

Harold A. Smith, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, says: “Since our Hispanic Apostolate opened in 1963, we have welcomed immigrants and helped them to learn English and assisted them with a wide variety of needs. This new Center continues Catholic Charities’ historic tradition of welcoming immigrants that began in the late 1700s.

“In 2005, Rivera Qualitative Research and Language Services of Washington D.C. issued a study regarding Hispanic’s access to healthcare. It cited lack of health insurance, funds to pay for treatment and medications, transportation, and inability to communicate as factors that discourage immigrant Hispanics from seeking health care. In response to this report, the Consortium participants began exploring ways to address these unmet needs. The Consortium is now joining together to implement a strategy to reduce these barriers to health services. We are taking a major step to fill a critical gap in service in a culturally sensitive, comforting, and welcoming setting.”

All four members of the Consortium believe that expanding their missions to provide health services to those people in need is critical. St. Joseph Medical Center’s St. Clare Medical Outreach coach has served 2,000 patients annually at the Apostolate. After the rollout of the Health Services Center is complete and all providers are involved, the number of people served will at least double, greatly extending the type and quantity of care.

Mr. Smith continued: “Our Consortium participants are providing care at the Health Services Center on a voluntary, pro bono basis. They are also establishing a network of specialists who will see a limited number of patients on a free or reduced-fee basis. The Center will engage many medical providers from all levels of the health care community—physicians, dentists, nurses, mental health providers, as well as medical and nursing students. Those we serve will be asked to pay a nominal fee of $10 per visit to help offset operating costs, although we will never turn anyone away if they cannot pay the fee. An additional goal of the Center is to reduce the use of hospital emergency rooms for primary care.”

John K. Tolmie, president and CEO of St. Joseph Medical Center, states, “We are proud to be able to expand our care to the community surrounding the Hispanic Apostolate. We are pleased to continue St. Joseph Medical Center’s mission of compassionate care and loving service which we have been providing through the St. Clare coach for a decade, and to have a more permanent facility in which to do this. We look forward to this new Consortium which will expand medical care for families. We will continue to take the St. Clare coach to the Franciscan Center, which is another regular stop where we provide health care to those in need. Moving care into the Health Services Center will also free up the St. Clare coach to offer primary health care to uninsured and underinsured people in other locations.”

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine Vice President Steve Thompson: “Hopkins’ participation in the Hispanic Apostolate’s health initiative is a continuation of our longstanding support for the ever-changing East Baltimore Community.”

Bonnie Phipps, President and CEO, St. Agnes HealthCare, says: “We are pleased to be a part of this important collaboration, which provides the Latino community with increased access to health care. This effort shows what can be accomplished when organizations share their resources for a common cause.”

The new Health Services Center will create an appropriate medical environment for providing care and will have five examination rooms, two dental operatories, one eye care room, and comfortable, welcoming reception and waiting areas staffed by primarily bilingual staff. It is being designed as a place where clients will feel respected and secure. The Center will also offer space to other health care providers looking to serve this population.

The Health Services Center within The Hispanic Apostolate will become a beacon in the immigrant community, demonstrating the dedication shared by Catholic Charities, St. Joseph Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and St. Agnes HealthCare to be an integral part of the communities they serve.

Catholic Charities is Maryland’s leading non-profit provider of human services. The agency helps over 160,000 people each year and also provides a quarter million meals to the hungry.

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