Sea-Mar Community Health Center

Causes: Ambulatory & Primary Health Care, Community Clinics, Health, Mental Health, Public Health, Substance Abuse Dependency, Prevention & Treatment

Mission: Sea mar community health centers is a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health, human and housing services to diverse communities, specializing in service to latinos.

Programs: In fy 2017, sea mar community health centers was one of the leading providers of medical, dental and behavioral health services for low-income, uninsured and otherwise underserved individuals and families in western washington state. Sea mar's network of clinics spans eleven counties, including clallam, clark, cowlitz, grays harbor, island, king, pierce, skagit, snohomish, thurston and whatcom. Together, in fy 2017 these clinics served 270,931 patients with 1,334,040 encounters. These services reach the most vulnerable members of these western washington communities, with 93. 1% living below the 200% federal poverty level. Sea mar's 32 medical clinics served 140,951 patients with 374,362 visits in fy 2017. Comprehensive medical services run the full spectrum from family medicine, obstetrics and preventive care to internal medicine, chronic disease management and geriatrics. Additionally, sea mar's medical providers have privileges in community hospitals throughout the agency's service area, ensuring inpatient care for patients as needed. Sea mar's 25 dental clinics served 79,843 patients with 228,304 visits in fy 2017. Dental services include pediatric and adult oral health exams and education, cleanings, fillings, extractions, diagnosis and treatment of various dental conditions, preventive oral health care including fluoride treatments and dental sealants, consultations for crowns and bridges, and some orthodontics. Sea mar's medical and dental clinics offer same day appointments for emergency or urgent care, and the agency has lab, x-ray and pharmacy services available in some locations throughout its service area. Sea mar follows a patient-centered medical home model of care, and focuses on population health management. To best serve its clients, sea mar provides all services in english, spanish and other languages as needed, and all clients are served regardless of insurance status or ability to pay for services. Behavioral health care services are among the most challenging for vulnerable populations to access, due to stigma, cost, and the limited availability of such services for low-income, uninsured, homeless, or non-english speaking individuals. Sea mar's outpatient behavioral health clinics provide multi-lingual, culturally-appropriate mental health and chemical dependency treatment support to clients regardless of insurance status or ability to pay for services. Sea mar's 35 outpatient behavioral health clinics served 13,855 clients with 147,832 visits in fy 2017. During the fiscal year, sea mar continued to further integrate its behavioral health services with primary care wherever possible, ensuring that patients in need are accessing all options for achieving positive health outcomes.

preventive health services (phs). Sea mar's multi-functional phs team covers three major branches of service. Health education includes programs that provide patients with nutritional counseling and guidance, weight control, family planning, smoking cessation and chronic disease management support. In fy 2017, maternity support services (mss) provided support to 5,124 pregnant women and new mothers to ensure healthy pregnancy and infancy outcomes. Sea mar's women, infants and children (wic) program is the largest private wic provider in the state of washington, serving 36,418 people with 217,833 encounters in fy 2017. The program provides food vouchers alongside health, breastfeeding and nutrition education for pregnant women, new mothers and young children.

chemical dependency inpatient treatment centers. Sea mar goes beyond the outpatient treatment model to provide longer-term inpatient chemical dependency treatment for low-income, uninsured or under-insured youth and adults in four facilities offering a total of 100 beds throughout its service area. These treatment centers offer bilingual, culturally-appropriate services to people with few other options for such treatment. In fy 2017, sea mar's inpatient treatment centers provided 30,723 patient days to 1,737 individuals with safe detox, evidence-based treatment, and guidance during re-entry, including transition to sea mar's outpatient behavioral health services as needed. Nearly all of these patients were living below the 200% federal poverty level.

cannon house assisted living facility. Cannon house is located in the diverse central district neighborhood of seattle, and provides safe and affordable assisted living services for seniors and others in need of residential care. The facility houses just over 100 residents, and focuses on helping residents maintain independence and a high quality of life. Sea mar provided 31,025 patient days to cannon house residents in fy 2017. Nearly all cannon house residents are medicaid/medicare recipients living below the 200% federal poverty level. Managed care. The managed care department has made sea mar a leader in the state of washington for providing health insurance enrollment information and assistance to community members in need. In fy 2017, sea mar's managed care outreach and enrollment team served 52,543 unduplicated individuals with information about insurance options and enrollment in insurance plans. Services are provided in person and over the phone, in english, spanish, and other languages as needed to serve the client. Patients who become medicaid beneficiaries and enter into managed care services with sea mar receive monitoring and outreach to ensure they are overcoming any barriers to accessing the services they need, and successfully engaging in treatment and follow up to reach the positive health outcomes established between the patient and their provider. Sea mar serves approximately 106,919 patients enrolled in the managed care services program. Other services. Sea mar meets its mission in providing comprehensive services with a specialization in serving the latino community through a wide variety of programs beyond the core health care services. These programs focus on addressing the social determinants of health by providing various social supports that give individuals and families the support and connections they need to maintain well-being. These programs include nutrition and services outreach for latino senior citizens, cancer screening programs, community events, citizenship classes, child care, civic engagement, education and youth educational achievement and leadership programs, spanish-language radio programming, a boxing club for at-risk youth, home care and more. Through these programs, clients achieve independence and the skills necessary to succeed in their lives, which translates to success in achieving positive health outcomes over the long term.