On Thursday afternoon, Marram Health Center hosted an open house at its Portage clinic for board members, employees, and partners from organizations such as UnitedHealthcare. The clinic offered tours of the building, which opened last October, and celebrated the work of the office’s staff and those involved in making the location a reality.
Clarence Boykin, DHA and vice president of Marram Health Center, helped spearhead the development of the new location. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, they are committed to providing comprehensive care regardless of ability to pay – something he said he saw further need for within the Portage community after hearing from the behavioral health patients of Marram Health Center’s parent organization, Porter-Starke Services.
“Those patients expressed a need for primary care services, that’s where this idea came from,” he said. “We have five exam rooms here, and that allows us to do family practice as well as provide an outlet for us to refer patients to our other locations where we offer things like chiropractic and dental services.”
The clinic is just a couple of months away from its one year anniversary, and Boykin noted that it is already proving to be a big success in delivering quality care to patients.
“It’s gone pretty well. We do surveys of our patients twice a year,” he said. “Those have come back very strong; the patients like what we do, they like our provider, Riley Reed, and the staff that assist her.”
Reed, a family nurse practitioner (FNP), joined the Marram Health Center team just before the clinic opened its doors for the first time.
“Since opening, our patient base has increased,” she said. “I think we’ve done a great job adapting and serving as a great community resource. We’ve gotten a lot of referrals from local offices and family members of our patients.”
The clinic shares a building with Porter-Starke’s Portage location, uniting primary care with mental health services.
“This setup allows patients who have had mental care for years but lacked primary care to address that need,” Reed said. “We’ve coined it a one-stop-shop. If I’ve taken a patient who hasn’t been in the Porter-Starke system yet and has a mental health need that I’m not able to address, it’s an easy referral process with open lines of communication. It’s been extremely beneficial to have both services under one roof.”
Boykin praised Reed for her work with Marram Health Center’s patients, and her fluidity at adapting to the “one-stop-shop” concept.
“She has done a superb job at getting patients in; we’ve seen something of an exponential growth here,” she said. “That’s due in large part to her hard work. We’re very thankful to have Riley on our team.”
Reed encouraged prospective patients to consider choosing Marram Health Center and to drop by the new office.
“One thing I’ve noticed that differentiates us from other clinics is our ability to spend an extended amount of time with our patients,” she said. “We’ve been given the benefit of providing quality care with ample time to address multiple issues in a visit and close follow-up. Being part of Porter-Starke, we put a lot of emphasis on mental health and quality of life, you’re not seen as your disease - you’re seen as a person with a history that we can help you with.”
To learn more about Marram Health Center, visit marramhealth.org.