Greene County health center receives federal funding
Cornerstone Care is one of 60 health centers across the nation that will receive federal funding to bolster its Teaching Health Center, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this month.
The Cornerstone Care Teaching Health Center, based in Mount Morris, was awarded $1.2 million in Affordable Care Act funding that will support its family medicine residency program.
Robert MtJoy, CEO of Cornerstone Care, said the award money will be used to support programs, educators and stipends for the residents.
“There’s going to be a primary care shortage in this country,” MtJoy said. “This will be mostly felt in areas like ours — areas that are rural and underserved.
“We want to train more primary care physicians. When physicians are trained in an area, they are three times more likely to practice there. We’re hoping to recruit the residents to practice here in our area.”
The Cornerstone Care Teaching Health Center opened in July 2013 and began its second year in operation earlier this month. The three-year residency program is approved for 12 positions and can accept up to four qualified residents each year. MtJoy said the center, which currently has eight residents enrolled, hopes to recruit four more students for next year’s class.
The center recruits medical school graduates, many of whom studied at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg, W.Va.
“(Residents) receive training in several specialties as part of a family medicine residency education,” said MtJoy. Residents rotate through several disciplines including emergency medicine, general surgery, cardiology, anesthesiology, radiology, obstetrics and gynecology and complete their inpatient care training at Mon General Hospital in Morgantown.
The HHS awarded $83.4 million to Teaching Health Centers in 24 states, including five centers in Pennsylvania. Four centers associated with the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education in Scranton received a combined $13.8 million.
The HSS said the funding will help train more than 550 residents during the 2014-15 academic year, increasing the number of residents trained in the previous academic year by more than 200 and helping to increase access to health care in communities across the country.
“The Affordable Care Act supports the training of new primary care physicians through the Teaching Health Center program,” said HSS secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in a statement July 7. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the continued growth of this program to help prepare even more physicians to provide primary care in communities across the country.”
Cornerstone Care is a federally qualified health center with central offices located in Greensboro. The network provides a full-range of primary care and preventative health, dental and mental care in eight locations in southwestern Pennsylvania including offices located in Mount Morris, Waynesburg, Uniontown, Burgettstown, Rogersville and Washington.Cornerstone Care is a federally qualified health center with central offices located in Greensboro. The network provides a full-range of primary care and preventative health, dental and mental care in eight locations in southwestern Pennsylvania including offices located in Mount Morris, Waynesburg, Uniontown, Burgettstown, Rogersville and Washington.