Hometown Health Center CEO Joseph Gambino is always looking for ways to reach medically under served populations. A 5,000-square-foot primary care facility on Division Street, just a few hundred feet from a public housing complex, is his latest venture and Hometown’s first outside of Schenectady County.
“Amsterdam has a very large volume of Medicaid enrollments and a large low-income population,” Gambino said Wednesday following a news conference for the facility’s grand opening. “Community health centers exist to serve that population, we wanted to come into Amsterdam to meet that need.”
Gambino said the Schenectady-based health provider’s mission is to provide affordable health care access to “vulnerable populations.”
“We serve children, adults, seniors, anyone that needs access to care and has some vulnerable situation in their life where perhaps they don’t have transportation or health insurance they can come to Hometown and see a primary care doctor,” he said.
Hometown will look to work “hand-in-hand” with St. Mary’s Health Care, Gambino said, which runs hospital, primary and specialty care centers throughout Fulton and Montgomery counties.
“The hospital has been serving the poor for many years, we see our job as complementing their services,” he said. “If we’re available in the community, we can provide them and then if they have more significant issues we can get them to the hospital.”
Under an agreement in place since the facility opened in October, Hometown will refer patients to St. Mary’s for diagnostic laboratory tests, X-rays, cancer screening, mental health services, substance abuse, specialty services and occupational therapy.
St. Marys’ CEO Vic Gulianelli welcomed Hometown as a “vital part” of the Amsterdam community. “We are interested in transforming health care over the next five years,” he said. “We are at the very precipice of that and we are looking to move ahead and redefine how we deliver care. It is our mission to deliver care, individually and also through this partnership.”
A nurse practitioner and six bilingual support personnel are currently employed at Hometown’s facility, which features 10 exam rooms. Company officials expect it to swell to around five multicultural providers and 15 support staff in several years, providing regional residents with valuable employment opportunities.
Gambino estimated that Hometown will serve 2,000 people in Amsterdam in its first year.
“Over the course of the next few years we will build that number to 2,500 or 3,000,” he said. “But it will take a while for them to understand that we’re here.”
Federal, county and city officials attended the news conference, lauding Hometown’s expansion into Amsterdam and touting their work in Schenectady County.
Amsterdam Mayor Ann Thane was impressed by the healthy relationship between St. Mary’s Health Care and Hometown and called it a “great example” for politicians to work together. She said she recently visited a group of children at a local elementary school where students were excited about being healthy members of the community.
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