Grants and Contracts Details
Description
University of Kentucky
American Rescue Plan – Health Center Construction and Capital Improvements
Project Narrative
The service area served by our health center, located in the heart of the Appalachian Coal Fields, needs
consistent, quality dental care for both general and preventive services as well as access to more
specialized services. Our service area is made up of a large Medicaid population. Many of the private
dentists who practice in the area will not accept or will limit the number of patients they will serve who
are uninsured or have Medicaid insurance coverage due to low reimbursement rates for their services.
This practice creates a major barrier to access for dental care in our area. For specialized services our
area is limited as the nearest oral surgeons are located at a nearly 90-minute drive away from most of
our population. This funding opportunity provides our health center with a means to close this gap in
access by increasing our capacity to serve more patients for general and preventive dentistry and,
through a collaboration with the University Of Kentucky College Of Dentistry, provide specialized
treatment.
North Fork Valley Clinic Dentistry Expansion
The North Fork Valley (NFV) clinical site, located in Hazard, re-established a fixed dental clinic in April of
2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was about to take hold. Fixed dentistry had not been an on-site
service in earnest for some time. Primarily the fixed site would be used to see children in need of more
comprehensive care that were referred from our mobile dental program that serves the local schools.
Since the opening in April, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the service has continued to grow. The
site has three working operatories where mainly general and preventive dentistry is provided by one full
time dentist and a part time dental hygienist. Efforts to recruit a full time hygienist are about to begin.
With the addition of a full time hygienist and given current patient demand, we have reached our
physical capacity to open up additional access for our patients. With this opportunity we are proposing
to fully equip a fourth operatory. The space to be used is a former operatory and will require not
alteration or renovation of the space. This new operatory will increase our ability to schedule and see
additional patients and meet our current demand.
Dental specialists in our area are a rarity, even though there is a high demand for their services. The
nearest specialists are approximately a 90 minute drive for most of our population. Even still, many of
those providers will not accept or will limit the number of patients they will serve who are uninsured or
have Medicaid. This limits access to more complex procedures that many of our patients and area
residents alike desperately need. Our health center board of directors has recently approved a
collaboration with the University Of Kentucky College Of Dentistry to bring specialty dental services to
the center by bringing in an oral surgeon from the university to serve the patients of our clinic as well as
referrals from other area dentists. This addition will bring specialty dental services to an area that is in
great need for such services. At issue is a suitable space with the equipment needed to provide the
service. With this funding opportunity we are proposing to equip an empty, former dental operatory
with the equipment needed to bring this much needed service to our center.
June Buchanan Clinic Dental Operation
Our June Buchanan (JB) clinic site serves the residents of Knott County, Kentucky. Another area with
high unemployment and a vast number of Medicaid recipients. This area’s dental needs are currently
unmet. The county had one full time dentist who is closing the practice this very month, June 2021, and
one part time dentist who sees only his existing patients that are insured or are willing/able to pay for
their services in cash prior to services being rendered. With the closing of the only full time dental
practice in the area it is vitally important to bring a dental presence back to our health center to serve
the community. Efforts to recruit a dentist to serve this clinic will soon begin. The practice site includes a
full dental suite where fixed dental services were once offered nearly a decade ago. To bring the service
to life, some investment in equipment will be required. With this opportunity, our health center
proposes to invest in the equipment necessary to bring this practice back to the area a reality.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 7/18/24 → 9/29/25 |
Funding
- Health Resources and Services Administration: $232,612.00
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