Inova Health System Marks Opening of InovaCares Clinic for Women and Children

April 28th, 2009

Clinic Expanded to Serve Growing Demand for Services; Shares Space with Other Community Non-Profit Organizations

L-R: Rasha Ebeid, MD, Medical Director, Inova Cares Clinic for Women; Anne Rieger RN, AVP, Community Safety Net, Inova Health System; Catherine Hudgins, Fairfax County Supervisor, Hunter Mill District; Kylanne Green, Chief Administrative Officer, Inova Health System; Knox Singleton, President and CEO, Inova Health System; Sharon Bulova, Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors; Joanne Jorgenson, Deputy Director for Health Services, Fairfax County; Penny Gross, Fairfax County Supervisor, Mason District; Albert Brito, MD, Medical Director, InovaCares Clinic for Children.

Falls Church, VA — Inova Health System is celebrating the opening of the InovaCares Clinic for Women and Children at its new location at 6400 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 100, in Falls Church, VA 22042. From 3 to 7 p.m. today, Inova will mark the opening with a ribbon cutting and celebration involving Inova staff, Fairfax County Supervisors, the Fairfax County Health Department and other members of the community.

The InovaCares Clinic for Women and Children is part of Inova’s safety-net services, which provide healthcare services to low-income and uninsured patients who do not have access to care with private physician practices. The clinics serve patients at 200 percent or less of the federal poverty line (FPL) and offer a reduced sliding-scale fee for those patients at 200 to 300 percent of the FPL. The programs are set up to serve a culturally diverse population (Inova staff are bilingual in English and Spanish).

“After seeing demand for these services rise during the past few years, we decided to relocate the clinics to a larger space to better serve our patients,” said Anne Rieger, RN, Assistant Vice President, Community Safety Net, Inova Health System. “We’ve expanded the number of exam rooms, we have a laboratory on site and, by sharing space with other community organizations, patients have instant access to a variety of healthcare-related services.”

The new 30,000-square-foot space spans two floors and includes classrooms for patient education, a laboratory, private patient-interview rooms and physician offices. Inova also donated space for several other non-profit community health organizations. In these tough economic times, many not-for-profit organizations are banding together to share space, resulting in lower overhead costs.

The InovaCares Clinics and community programs housed at the new location include:

InovaCares Clinic for Women
The InovaCares Clinic for Women, formerly the Inova OB/GYN Clinic on the Inova Fairfax Hospital Campus, provides comprehensive outpatient prenatal, obstetrical, gynecological and surgical care. The clinic has more than 50,000 visits and more than 3,500 deliveries at Inova Fairfax Hospital annually. The new space includes 18 exam rooms and three procedure rooms that have the latest ultrasound and imaging technology for accurate diagnoses.

InovaCares Clinic for Children
The InovaCares Clinic for Children, formerly the Inova Pediatric Center located at Woodburn Road, provides comprehensive pediatric services, including well-child care, immunizations, sick visits and school/sports physicals. The clinic, which has been serving Fairfax County and surrounding areas since 1993, sees young people from newborns up to age 18. In 2008, the clinic had more than 21,000 visits. The new space includes 17 exam rooms and a special immunization room. In 2008, the staff administered more than 21,700 immunizations to children.

This summer, Inova plans to open a satellite location of InovaCares Clinic for Children in Reston. The clinic will be located in a newly renovated, 5,000 square-foot area at the Inova Emergency Care Center-Reston at 11901 Baron Cameron Avenue.

Inova Care Connection for Children
Inova Care Connection for Children (CCC) is a statewide program managed by Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children that provides case management and care coordination for children with chronic healthcare needs. Sponsored by the Virginia Department of Health, CCC is part of a statewide network that helps families coordinate community and educational resources with medical expertise to ensure that children with special healthcare needs can reach their maximum potential.

NOVA ScriptsCentral
NOVA ScriptsCentral (NSC) is a non-profit collaborative pharmacy whose mission is to provide quality pharmaceutical care and access to life-saving medications for uninsured families and their children. It embraces the use of e-prescribing to enhance prescription safety and provides medication therapies for 35 chronic diseases, including diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, depression, high blood pressure, heart failure and Parkinson’s disease. In its first 18 months of operation, from September 2007 through February 2009, NSC provided more than $1.4 million worth of medications to patients of the region’s safety-net clinics.

At 3:30 p.m. today, CareFirst BlueCross will present NSC with a $250,000 check to help support its operations. For every $1 invested in NSC, $34 in service and product are returned to the community.

Multicultural Human Services Program
Multicultural Human Services (MHS) is a program of the Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) that provides a range of mental health, social and educational services in more than 15 languages to immigrants and refugees. Services include domestic-violence prevention, alcohol- and drug-abuse prevention, gang prevention, education and intervention, and mentoring programs. Staffed by multi-ethnic, multilingual social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and education specialists, MHS helps people understand and navigate American culture and organizations so they can become self-sufficient.

Inova Health System is a not-for-profit healthcare system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services, including emergency- and urgent-care centers, home care, nursing homes, mental health and blood donor services, and wellness classes. Governed by a voluntary board of community members, Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research. Inova provides a healthy environment for its patients, families, visitors, staff and physicians by prohibiting tobacco use on its campuses.