In just a few months, Centre Volunteers in Medicine will open its new headquarters that will expand the free clinic’s opportunities for providing high-quality health care to low-income, uninsured and under-insured individuals who live or work in Centre County.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey was on hand to see the work in progress at 2026 Sandy Drive in Ferguson Township, for which he helped secure federal funding.
“The work that gets done here is God’s work, the most important work that I can imagine, where people are served, people that have no access to health care or have limited access, or might have access but not the quality care that they’re going to receive in a place like this,” Casey said.
CVIM, now in its 20th year, has outgrown its current 6,700-square-foot facility on Green Tech Drive in Patton Township and in the fall of 2021 purchased the 11,000-square-foot Sandy Drive building for $2.35 million. The nonprofit organization launched a $10 million campaign — later increased to $11 million — last January to support the extensive renovations needed to outfit the building and permanent endowments that will ensure it can continue to meet the growing demand for services.
Support came from state funding and private donors. The new facility will be named the Palmer Family Clinic in honor of a $2 million gift from the Palmer Foundation, which was created by the late philanthropists Barbara and Jim Palmer
Casey also advocated for the $1.125 million in funding CVIM received from the fiscal year 2022 federal spending bill.
“I know that doesn’t cover everything, but it’s first and foremost an investment, an investment in quality care in Centre County, an investment in the families of this community and by extension the businesses and economic dynamism and growth in this county,” Casey said. “The people of this county deserve this kind of investment.”
Heddy Kervandjian, chair of the CVIM Board of Directors, thanked Casey for helping to “to make the dream of owning our own building a reality.”
She said an estimated 12,000 people in Centre County are without health care. In its old facility, space limitations hindered CVIM’s ability to grow education and wellness programs, start new programs, add more volunteers and, perhaps most importantly, increase its volume of patient care.
“The health and welfare of our fellow citizens impacts all of us,” Kervandjian said. “The mission of any ideal society is for its residents to have access to quality care. Here, women can get yearly exams; patients can get assistance with hearing aids and glasses; children can have their teeth cleaned; people can see a therapist; citizens can get their smiles back when they wear their new more affordable dentures. Patients will meet their primary care provider, receive medication and work with case workers to plan their treatment and recovery plans for more complicated issues.
“Hundreds of volunteer citizens, doctors, nurses and health care providers come together to care for our patients and work alongside the small CVIM staff to make it all happen.”
The new clinic will be “energy efficient and technologically up-to-date,” Executive Director Cheryl White said last year. Its medical wing will have nine exam rooms — including spaces dedicated to physical therapy, women’s services and eye exams.
It will also allow CVIM to expand its behavioral health, dental and case management programs. The behavioral health wing will have four counseling offices and two eligibility rooms. The dental wing will grow from four operatories to six and allow for a full-time dentist who is funded by the Department of Health.
Oral surgeon and CVIM volunteer Dr. Barry Stein said the new facility should help to address the large demand for dental services, which have had a waitlist in the hundreds.
“The number of patients we treat is only a small fraction of the many patients in need,” Stein said. “Hopefully our new state-of-the-art medical and dental facility will help us achieve our goals and offer treatment to more and more Centre County residents.”
He and Kervandjian both stressed that while the new clinic will help better serve more patients, CVIM’s programs are dependent on financial support from the community and hundreds of volunteers.
“Thanks to the generous donors, grants we are able to continue offering emergency and routine dental care to our underserved population,” Stein said. “But to maintain services at the level of excellence that we have achieved, we continue to need contributions and volunteers.”
“Little by little we are making a great difference in providing services for patients in need,” he added. “I ask myself if not us, then who. Getting patients out of pain, treating dental infections, extracting a tooth, filling a deep cavity and providing dentures to give someone their smile back are some of the services we offer. We must continue to build on our success, offering our services to more and more people to help bring down our large waiting list.”
Some people “fall through the gaps,” because they don’t have employer health insurance, can’t get a plan on their own and don’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, Casey said, so a free clinic providing a wide variety of services like CVIM is critical.
He was “very impressed” with the work being done by CVIM and the scope of the new facility.
“It’s exceedingly rare, especially in a county this size,” Casey said. “It’s such a huge county geographically. You get people coming from all over, … [and] having access to this kind of care this facility can now accommodate that.”
CVIM’s Palmer Family Clinic is expected to open in late spring.
