New Life Community Health Center Seeks New Medical Director

By David Jennings |  September 27, 2014

 


Medical Director Search

September 15, 2014

 

The Context of New Life Community Health Center

 
Elmhurst, Queens is known as the most ethnically diverse zip code in the world with almost 60% of its residents being foreign born.  Since the heath center’s inception in 2000 we have seen patients from 106 different countries of origin. Elmhurst is also the zip code with the highest percentage of uninsured or under-insured people in New York State. 
 
New Life Community Health Center is situated in the former Elk’s Lodge on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens.  It is considered by the New York City Department of Health to be part of “West Queens,” which includes the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, Woodside and Maspeth, for a population total of more than 477,000 according to the 2010 census.  Within that population, 22% are under 18 years old, 68% are between 18 and 64 and 10% are older than 65.  Forty-two percent of women who give birth at Elmhurst Hospital receive late or no prenatal care.  The New York City average for late or no prenatal care is 30% and the national average is 10%.  In 2009, St. John’s hospital which was only a few blocks away closed, leaving Elmhurst Hospital as the only hospital serving the 477,000 people of West Queens.  A few months ago, the old Pan Am Hotel just two blocks west on Queens Boulevard was re-opened as a family homeless shelter.
 
New Life Community Health Center functions under the umbrella of New Life Community Development Corporation, which is the non-profit service arm of New Life Fellowship Church. New Life Fellowship began in September 1987 in a small wooden church on National Street in Corona, New York. Beginning with a small team of eight to ten dedicated individuals, New Life Fellowship set out to establish a bi-lingual Spanish and English church in Queens with a number of core commitments – passion for Jesus, quality community life built on small groups, a focus on grace, the bridging of racial, cultural, economic and gender barriers, taking the gospel to the streets and the engagement of the poor and marginalized.  By 1993 they had outgrown the Corona building and strategically chose to rent space in the Elk’s Lodge in Elmhurst. Over the next ten years there were opportunities for the church to relocate to “better” locations, but the leadership’s strong conviction that they were called to walk out Christ’s mission among the poor and marginalized and not just be another big city church led to their purchase of the historic Elk’s Lodge at 82-10 Queens Boulevard.  The church, under the leadership of Peter Scazerro and now Rich Villodas (as of 2013), has been very intentional in celebrating the diversity of the community and its members and seeking to provide vision, hope, and restoration to a very diverse and needy community. 
 
It is our desire that the Medical Director for the New Life Community Health Center become a member of New Life Fellowship and embrace the mission and “5M’s/Distinctives” that shape the church. For more information on the history of New Life Fellowship Church go to http://newlifefellowship.org/about-us/about-new-life/new-lifes-history/#headline1.
 

The History of New Life Community Health Center

 
The vision for New Life Community Health Center began to germinate with a group of nurses from Elmhurst Hospital who were in a Bible study together when New Life Fellowship began in 1987.  They felt compelled by their faith and Jesus’ example to do something more for the poor and immigrants in the Elmhurst community.  Through regular prayer and fellowship, the concept of creating a faith-based health center was born in 2000.

The process has been slow but deliberate and covered with prayer each step of the way.  Numerous health fairs, starting in 2001, have been conducted in local parks (more than 80 fairs have provided 4140 patient screenings).  Mission trips to Haiti and the Philippines have been taken. A core of 12-15 leaders have stewarded the vision for the past 15 years.


After New Life Fellowship bought the Elk’s Lodge in December 2003 construction plans began for the health center space.  In 2011 the space was finished with 1,800 square feet of exam room and office space, including four fully-equipped exam rooms, two dental rooms, a medication room, a laboratory, offices, and patient bathroom and shower where showers are provided for the homeless.
 

In March 2005 the health center began offering free drop in clinic hours on Tuesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:30 pm. In September 2005 Saturday hours were added. Approximately 100 volunteers staff the Tuesday night and Saturday drop in clinic. The chart below shows the historical patient visits.



For a more detailed history of the New Life Community Health Center go to http://www.nlchc.org/about-us/history.html.

The Character of New Life Community Health Center

 

Mission Statement

 
Compelled by Christian faith, in partnership with New Life Fellowship, New Life Community Development Corporation and others, we seek to see lives transformed through the provision of ongoing excellence in health care oriented to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of immigrants and the under-insured of west/central Queens in New York City.
 

Core Values

 
New Life Community Health Center seeks to exalt Jesus Christ and fulfill its mission by being:
 
An Example of Christian Faith that Transforms Lives
Faith in Christ is what motivates us to do what we do and to serve in the way we serve.  Christ set the example for us in consistently meeting both the physical needs and spiritual needs of the people to whom he ministered.  The Luke 5 miracle of Jesus healing the lame man lowered down through the roof is a theme passage for us as Jesus heals the man physically but also addresses sin in his life.  A life-size mural of multiple miracles, including this one, is on the wall of one of the hallways in the heath center.
 

 
A Center of Excellence
The leadership team added the phrase “ongoing excellence” to our mission statement a number of years ago because we felt that we did not want to be a “shoddy clinic for poor people.”  We believe that God has placed His image in all of us, rich or poor, powerful or weak, and we want that to be evident in our facility, our professionalism and knowledge, and our relationships with each other and with our patients.
 
 
Partnerships
Our goal is to serve our community in faith and love and we don’t believe that New Life Fellowship Church is the only body that can do that.  We have partnered with other churches and para-church organizations for outreaches and events and in seeking volunteers.  We believe that there is much to be gained through diversity and do not consider ourselves to have all the answers or all the resources.
 





Services

 
The health center will be a full-service family practice and urgent care facility with dental services.  Other specialties will be available as staffing allows.  There will be a focus on pediatrics and women’s health due to the community needs as mentioned above.  For any inpatient care, referrals will be made to Elmhurst Hospital and their staff will manage the patients during their inpatient stay.  Phlebotomy will be done onsite with tests sent out to Quest laboratories or other labs for processing.   Radiology exams will be referred to outside facilities.  The medication room will be stocked with vaccines and drugs to be used in the health center but will not function as a typical pharmacy for the general filling of prescriptions.
 

Hours of Operation

 
Currently, the health center is open two times a week for a total of five and one-half hours. The plan is to expand to three days a week and provide a minimum of 16-18 hours of service weekly. The paid staff would work three eight hour days and we would provide six hours of patient care each day. Below is the proposed schedule:
 
Day                 Hours of Operation     Staff Hours
Tuesday           2:00 pm – 8:00 pm      1:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Thursday         2:00 pm – 8:00 pm      1:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Saturday          10:00 am – 4:00 pm    9:30 am – 4:30 pm
 

Staffing Model

 
New Life Community Health Center has been 100% volunteer run until September 2013 when we hired two part-time positions, a medical administrator to work on writing policies for Article 28 requirements and a volunteer coordinator. 
 
With our expanded hours, we will continue with a large base of volunteers but will have a few stable part-time employees to include a medical director, staff physician, nurse, and secretary.  The medical director and the staff physician may be the same person.
 

Volunteers

 
New Life Community Health Center places a high value on volunteers and students.  Due to our clientele being mostly uninsured or under-insured, we will always need to be partially staffed by volunteer medical professionals and volunteer ancillary staff.  We require the same professionalism and skill base from volunteers as we do from paid staff.  The same interview process, document checks, and background checks are required. 
 
We believe that providing a place for students to come and experience how their faith can be combined with their profession is critical.  As a result, we regularly speak at various medical schools for their Christian Medical and Dental Association meetings and invite them to come and volunteer with us. 
 
Annually, we recognize individuals who through their service promote the values of the health center, sacrificially contribute financially, and graciously serve our community through their volunteering.
 

Finances

 
New Life Community Health Center has been funded completely by private donations and grants.  Since 2001 we have raised over $750,000 to build the health center, provide community health fairs, and outfit exam rooms with equipment. The chart below shows the historical funding sources.
 


The Opportunities and Challenges for New Life Community Health Center


Staffing and Training

 
Our volunteers give freely of their time and talents and we love them and are constantly amazed by them.  However, a number of challenges come with our model of maintaining a large volunteer base.  Maintaining personnel file documents on everyone who works for us, whether they work 80 hours a month or four hours a month, is a necessary and huge task.  Also, disseminating information to all of our personnel in such a way that everyone stays informed can be difficult.  The Medical Director needs to be able to motivate and inspire our staff and volunteers in such a way that the requirements that we do ask of them (maintaining documents, attending trainings, etc.) do not feel like a burden but rather a blessing to us and to them.
 
Under Article 28 there are specific annual trainings that are required of all personnel.  These are covered in an annual orientation/training day with the presentations being made available to those who cannot attend.  Additional trainings to cover new policies or new medical studies/treatment are conducted as needed.
 

Community Needs and Patient Care

 
As previously discussed, clearly there are extreme medical needs in the neighborhood.  There is also a huge diversity of culture and language in the community.  Our strength is that the same diversity is reflected in our volunteers.  When a language barrier cannot be overcome, we have contracted with a language services company for ensuring adequate communication with our patients.  However, it is a constant challenge to be culturally sensitive and remember to not take offence or be the offender when communicating.
 
The advantage of having a large volunteer pool is that we have more freedom to spend time with patients in order to really understand and thus adequately respond to and treat their physical, emotional, spiritual, and social needs in a holistic way.  The challenge of relying so heavily on volunteers is that volunteer availability fluctuates and those who are available this month may not be available next month.  Thus, our pool has to be large enough to provide the necessary services at all times.
 
With the new family homeless shelter, over 25,000 children in our neighborhood schools, and, statistically poor prenatal care among the women who deliver at the local hospital, a large emphasis in our practice will be on pediatrics and women’s health.  We will be participants with New York City’s free Vaccines for Children (VFC) program as well as having vaccines for those who have insurance.  We have partnered with Restore NYC, an organization that rescues women from sex trafficking and provides safe houses.  We have agreed to see and treat the women who are in their program.  Our challenge will be maintaining our certifications with VFC and other grant programs we may participate in and seeking out new partnerships to strengthen the services we want to provide.
 
Relationship Building
 
Because of our volunteer model and need for private funding, ongoing relationships with individuals and organizations will need to be continuously fostered.  Due to the limited medical services we have offered up to this point, we have not recruited a large physician/provider pool of volunteers.  As we expand our services, part of the Medical Director’s roll will be to function as a liaison for the health center to help recruit physician volunteers and partner with other medical services.
 
The Qualifications of the New Life Community Health Center Medical Director
 
The Medical Director will have the skills to lead the health center through the transition from a free drop in screening clinic to a New York State licensed Article 28 primary care facility. This individual will possess the experience necessary to lead a small paid staff and volunteers to accomplish the expansion of the existing operations and pursue collaboration with other health care providers and medical service providers. The Medical Director is responsible for assuring that quality care is delivered oriented to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the community.  Applicants must be able to live out the mission statement and vision of New Life Community Health Center with integrity.  Understanding the urban context of New Life Community Health Center, applicants must have a heartfelt desire to “reach the nations.”
 

Professional Qualifications

 
  • Medical Doctorate of Medicine
    • Preferred Family Practice or Internal Medicine
  • Comprehensive understanding of the medical and administrative issues involved in providing clinical leadership at a community health center.
  • Experience and demonstrated abilities for working in a multi-cultural setting.
  • Ability to provide holistic leadership, addressing physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and staff.
  • Ability to collaborate and interact with a diverse group of health care professionals.
  • Ability to organize, direct, prioritize, and delegate work appropriately.
  • Excellent analytical skills necessary for preparing financial, legal, and administrative reports.
  • Excellent guest relations skills.
  • Ability to balance passion, skills, and vision.
  • A networker who motivates and inspires others to serve.
  • Experience with or commitment to medical mission teams.

 

Personal Qualities

 
  • Loves God and the poor.
  • Life learner with a teachable spirit, despite their prior academic accomplishments.
  • Known for their patience, character, and integrity.
  • Resume and experiences that reflect a life of commitment.
  • Heart of a servant, both humble and approachable.
  • Life that speaks of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
 

Compensation

 
Compensation will vary based on whether the candidate will function exclusively in an administrative capacity or expand the role to include clinical practice during health center operating hours with patient visits.
 

Timeline

 
We seek to have the new Medical Director identified and appointed before January 1, 2015. The official start date will be negotiated based on the scheduling of the New York State Department of Health site visit, receipt of the Article 28 license, and the candidate’s ability to realign or transition from current commitments. We envision the new Medical Director officially transitioning into the role between October 1, 2014 and January 1, 2015. Inquiries and applications will be received until the appropriate candidate is identified.
 

Contact

 
David C. Jennings, Executive Director
New Life Community Health Center
82-10 Queens Boulevard, 1st Floor
Elmhurst, NY 11373
jenningsd@nlchc.org
www.nlchc.org
 

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