Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center, Inc. (d.b.a. Cornerstone Family Healthcare)

In 2012, NYHealth awarded the Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center (GHVFHC) a grant to improve primary care access in medically underserved regions of New York State.

With this funding, GHVFHC laid the ground work and secured federal funding to bring the first federally qualified health center (FQHC) to Broome County, with the new center opening in Binghamton in February 2016. However, a great need persisted for expanding primary care in Broome County, which ranks low on the County Health Rankings and where nearly one in five residents earn an income that is below the poverty level. Although the then newly opened FQHC in Binghamton had the capacity to serve approximately 1,400 patients when fully operational, the one site was not adequate to meet the needs of the entire underserved community of Broome County. In 2016, NYHealth awarded Cornerstone Family Healthcare (CFH), as GHVFHC is now known, a grant to plan for further expansion in Broome County and recruit medical staff for the Binghamton location.

Under this grant, CFH expanded primary care access to Broome County. First, CFH worked with a search firm to recruit and hire a family medicine physician to join the staff of its public housing primary care site in Binghamton. Clinical staffing at the site is now complete. In addition, CFH increased the availability of primary care by expanding the reach of its mobile health vans and implementing a telemedicine program to enhance mental health and substance use services for patients living in rural communities.