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Bond Health Center To Open Satellite Location In CarePoint Facility, Rickards Clinic Adds Dental

The expansive lobby area of the new Care Point Center
Tom Flanigan
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The expansive lobby area of the new Care Point Center
Credit Tom Flanigan
/
The Florida Channel
The interior of the CarePoint facility, operated by Big Bend Cares. Bond Community Health Center will open a satellite office called Bond On Magnolia within the CarePoint facility in April.

The landscape of community healthcare is changing in Tallahassee. Partnerships between providers and with other agencies is increasing access for those who have the most need.

One such partnership, between Bond Community Health Center and Big Bend Cares, has resulted in a new satellite office going in at the recently-opened CarePoint facility on South Monroe Street.

"We’re very happy that we continue to grow our relationship with big bend cares, to the extent that toward the end of April, we will open a small satellite within the CarePoint building," Dr. Temple Robinson, Bond’s CEO said. "And Bond’s satellite will be known as Bond on Magnolia."

Robinson says the satellite location is all about giving patients choices, and a level of convenience.

"We just want to give people another option to make sure we are providing access and meeting people where they are," Robinson said.

Big Bend Cares, which opened the $15 million dollar CarePoint facility in late 2017, has not yet responded to requests for an interview. In an email, Rob Renzi, the nonprofit’s CEO, instructed his staff not to reply to requests from WFSU.

Meanwhile, Neighborhood Medical Center, which provides similar services to uninsured patients, struck up a partnership with Leon County Schools in 2016. Becky Harnden, spokesperson for Neighborhood, says a clinic at Rickards High School staffed by her organization is filling a need in the community.

"They have rolled out the red carpet in terms of partnering with us to get healthcare services delivered to this quadrant of our community that was medically underserved," Harnden said of the district.

Harnden says a two new dental suites within the Rickards health clinic have allowed Neighborhood to address what is another glaring health need among the uninsured.

"We offer behavioral health services in addition to our full scope of primary health care services and we have just now opened two dental suites at that location as well," Harnden said.

Harnden adds Neighborhood has capacity patients at each of its locations. At Rickards, it sees about 450 patients per month for general healthcare services, and that’s not counting dental.

Dr. Temple Robinson says Bond Community Health Center does have one nagging concern: They are feeling the effects of Florida’s statewide nursing shortage.

"Because we’re a nonprofit health center, the nursing shortage has disproportionately affected us, I would say," Robinson said. "We can’t compete with the salaries or incentive packages that the private agencies or the hospitals can offer. "

Bond is set to celebrate its 35 th anniversary in 2019.

Copyright 2020 WFSU. To see more, visit WFSU.

Ryan Dailey is a reporter/producer for WFSU/Florida Public Radio. After graduating from Florida State University, Ryan went into print journalism working for the Tallahassee Democrat for five years. At the Democrat, he worked as a copy editor, general assignment and K-12 education reporter.