NEW DENTAL CLINIC TO OPEN EARLY 2016
Wheeling Health Right to Open Dental Clinic
Wheeling, WV October 14, 2015: Wheeling Health Right Inc, a local United Way agency, is excited to announce the plans for a new Dental Clinic to be constructed and opened at the clinic’s main site at 61-29th St, Wheeling WV in early winter, 2016. With the inception of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, and the many changes being made to health care in WV, Wheeling Health Right has been working diligently to address the unmet needs of our community. Since the ACA, including expanded Medicaid and the Marketplace, do not address adult dental care, it seemed a natural direction for the clinic to move to address this unmet need and bring dental health care to the primary care setting.
With the assistance of the WVAFC’s Executive Director, Patricia Rouse Pope, funding was secured through the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the Highmark Foundation. The second year funding involved an RFP for which Wheeling Health Right, Inc applied and received the grant funding for year two of the grant with the specific intention of developing an onsite dental clinic. “It has been so rewarding to see how quickly this plan has come together”, states Kathie H Brown, Health Right Executive Director. Volunteer Dentists have stepped up to the “plate” offering their expertise and talent in how to establish a dental clinic, dental assistants and hygienists are offering to volunteer and the Henry Schein Company and other dental providers are working to help us build this clinic to be state of the art and fully serviceable for the patients we serve..
Today, October 14th, marks the beginning of the official construction phase for the clinic. It is anticipated the onsite dental clinic will be fully functional by early winter, 2016. WHR Executive Director Kathie Brown further states “Wheeling Health Right is understandably excited about the impact this grant funding had in our community, not only in relation to what we’ve achieved to-date in adult dental expansion and education, but also to what we will be accomplishing in the coming months to make dental care for the uninsured a reality in the northern panhandle of WV. This will truly be dental health care in the primary care setting. This is one more step in making our hybrid clinic a true one-stop shop.” We are truly grateful to Kim Tieman and the Benedum Foundation and Christina Wilds of the Highmark Foundation for their commitment to the dental health of individuals living in the northern panhandle of WV, For further details, please contact the clinic at 304-233-9323.
