News

About one in eight HIV-positive Americans don’t realize they have the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Family First Health in York City offered free screenings Monday for National HIV Testing Day in hopes of helping those people.

“It’s been a great event,” said Shannon McElroy, Caring Together program manager with Family First. “We’ve been doing this for four years, walking the streets to hand out fliers and condoms and getting people to come in for free testing.”

Read more about the day from the York Dispatch.

Brian Bubb always knew he wanted to be a fashion designer.

“We would go to church on Sunday, and as long as you had a pad of paper and a pencil, he was happy,” his mother, Arlene Bubb, said. “He was drawing pictures of the ladies with their hats.”

The York Dispatch spoke to Arlene Bubb to help highlight the AIDS Memorial Quilt display in York. Take a look at the story.

Courtney Lewis was on the ground floor of the Family First Health offices in York for the employee cookout when she heard a noise so loud it sounded like a bomb.

It was followed by screaming.

“No sooner did we hear that … so many members of our team ran outside,” said Lewis, director of development for the health care organization.

A vehicle struck several pedestrians on the sidewalk around 11:15 a.m. Friday in the 100 block of George Street, in front of Family First Health’s office.

Read more from the York Daily Record.

Urgent centers are gaining in popularity for a number of reasons, experts say.

For one thing, they offer a place other than a hospital emergency room for patients to be treated when they can’t get in to see their own doctor, either because they can’t get an immediate appointment or because it is after hours.

A shortage of more than 20,000 primary care physicians is expected by 2020, according to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration. That could make it tougher for patients to get in to see a doctor.

The kind of  no-appointment-necessary availability that walk-in clinics offer, appeals to many millennials, who “aren’t necessarily looking for a long-term relationship with a health care provider,” said Jenny Englerth, CEO of First Family Health in York.

But a lack of a long-term relationship with a provider is seen as a problem by many.

Read more from the York Daily Record.

Five of us stood there in the wind at the York City Business and Industrial Park one recent afternoon waiting. Ten minutes, 15, 30 minutes passed as some tried to make small talk. Others just stood or sat quietly on their phones or looking off into the distance.

Just waiting and planning.

And by the time the bus connection arrived a good 40 minutes later, I was just headed home after work, but the other four – they were late for work. They were going to get docked for it, too.

There were no email alerts, no updates coming in on the phones that our bus was running late. The cause: traffic in Manchester Township.

I’ve thought that I’ve had a pretty good idea about what’s going on in York from years as a reporter and editor, now as a marketing and outreach coordinator for Family First Health, and as a person who’s just often found downtown. But in the two months I’ve been riding the bus, I’ve come to see there’s a huge section of this town that we don’t notice – maybe because we’re looking ahead as we drive by and not at those just stuck waiting at each bus stop along the way.

Read more from the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

Family First Health in Hanover has been selected as part of an initiative to provide more comprehensive care to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients.

The program, commissioned by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Centers for Disease Control, aims to give LGBT people improved care by asking questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

“This information just helps take better care of you,” said Karen McCraw, the director of social services for Family First Health.

Read more from The Evening Sun.

How would you describe yourself if you had to choose from the following: Male, female, female-to-male, male-to-female, genderqueer or an additional gender category?

If you decline to answer, provide a reason why.

These questions are among a series that a nurse practitioner within York-based Family First Health is asking every patient over the age of 13 that comes into her Hanover practice.

Read more from the Central Penn Business Journal. 

Gov. Tom Wolf signed two executive orders Thursday to expand non-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity for commonwealth employees under his jurisdiction.

That will have an immediate effect on the 79,000 employees under his purview and will affect “tens of thousands” of workers contracted with the state as those contracts come online, he said.

A week before the governor signed the orders, Family First Health announced its participation in a collaborative to transform primary care for LGBT patients.

Read more about it from the Daily Record/Sunday News.

Vision problems left untreated can affect a child’s overall health and learning, and Family First Health is working to make sure kids get the treatment they need — for free.

Jenny Englerth, CEO of Family First Health, said the organization is a member of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, which put out a call asking what communities could use the service, and so Family First Health jumped on it.

“We have consistently, within our interactions with York City schools, heard a challenge around both vision screenings and then exams and getting corrective lenses,” she said.

Read more at the York Daily Record/Sunday News.