Our Mission: The mission of our Centre County Partnership for Community Health is to support an inclusive, caring community that promotes healthy people and enhances quality of life through collaborative relationships.
Our Guiding Objective: To assess the health needs of Centre County residents and to develop outreach and partnering efforts that will bridge gaps in service and eliminate barriers to holistic health.
Centre County Health Care Resources
The text presented here provides a general overview of Health Care Resources available in Centre County. This information may be copied/shared freely.
Health care resources are a vital component of a community's total assets. These resources cover a wide array of services and programs, extending from hospital facilities to public (governmental) and private (voluntary) health-related organizations and agencies. Some public programs provide basic support for primary health care services, such as Medicare and Medicaid, while others focus on providing services aimed at preventing or ameliorating health problems, such as smoking cessation, maternal and child health, substance abuse and the like. Health care resources at the community level comprise a rich tapestry of services with different routes of access to care.
The most recognizable community health institutions are hospitals, which typically provide both inpatient (acute care) and oupatient (ambulatory) health services. In Centre County there are two acute care hospitals, the Mount Nittany Medical Center, a non-profit 200-bed facility located in State College, and Philipsburg Area Hospital, a 50-bed nonprofit facility located in Philipsburg Borough and serving the Moshannon Valley area in the northwest region of the county. (Recently, the Philipsburg Area Hospital announced a forthcoming downsizing of its bed count to 25 licensed beds in order to qualify for federal recognition as a critical care access hospital.)
There are also two specialty hospitals in Centre County. One of these is the Health South Nittany Valley Rehabilitation Hospital, a for-profit facility with 85 licensed beds. The other is the Meadows Psychiatric Center, a for-profit facility with 101 licensed beds.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health's directory of health facilities includes two ambulatory surgery centers in Centre County. One of these is the Mount Nittany Surgery Center, which has four operating rooms. It is administered by the Mount Nittany Medical Center. The other is UOC Surgical Services LTD, a for-profit ambulatory facility with three operating rooms.
Penn State University also operates the University Health Center (UHC), which offers a variety of short-term health care services to the student population. Students with health problems requiring longer-term inpatient care are transferred to a hospital in the local community or to the student's home community. The UHC also sponsors a range of health education programs to students, dealing with such subjects as sexually transmitted diseases, substance use and abuse, and intimate partner violence. Pharmacy services are also available to students and to faculty and staff (active and retired).
Long-term care facilities comprise an increasingly important component of the local community's health assets. Centre County is fortunate in having several nursing homes, some of which provide skilled nursing care for their patients and others offering resident care for elderly and disabled individuals needing continuous care to maintain health. The Department of Health's directory of long-term care facilities lists five nursing homes in Centre County: Centre Crest (government), Fairways at Brookline (for-profit), Foxdale Village (nonprofit), University Park Nursing Center (for-profit), and Windy Hill Village of the Presbyterian Homes (nonprofit). Two of these facilities, Centre Crest and University Park Nursing Center, have dedicated Alzheimer units.
Numerous other public (governmental) and private (voluntary) agencies provide health-related services to specified areas of health need. Some focus on particular target groups - e.g., child abuse and neglect, senior citizens, women's health, the learning disabled, and woman, infants and children (WIC), to name a few. Others provide health services directed to particular areas of health problems - e.g., substance abuse, primary health care for uninsured individuals and families, oral health, and sight-loss support, along with many others. Still others focus on particular diseases or chronic health conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular health, and home health assistance to support activities of daily living. The range of these health and human services agencies and programs, both public and voluntary, can be seen by visiting the following two web sites:
http://centreconnect.org/
(click on "Contents" to display a list of additional linkages)
http://centreconnect.org/health/health_hum_services.html
It can be noted that the availability of a community health services is not always equivalent to the accessibility of these services. For example, some public agencies and programs are means-tested - i.e., eligibility for services depends on a combination of demonstrated need and level of household income. Examples of means-tested health-related programs include income maintenance, medical assistance, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the new Adult Basic program. CHIP and Adult Basic are state-administered health insurance programs providing basic health benefits. Some voluntary agency programs also offer services on a free or sliding fee scale basis, depending on an individual's or family's ability to pay - e.g., Volunteers in Medicine's program of primary care for uninsured and limited-income households.
Several other health-related services are provided to individuals or families, with access to services depending on their status - e.g., senior citizens, children and youth services. In other instances, a health-related service may be available on a community-wide basis, exemplified by programs focusing on cancer prevention, cardiovascular health and substance-abuse prevention.
Health care professionals and allied health personnel constitute the human resources component of a community's health service assets. Physicians and dentists, along with nurses, are very visible health professionals. Other important health personnel include emergency service technicians, mental health providers, and specialists in such areas as children and youth services, health education, and counseling. The capacity of a community's health care professionals' ability to provide services is often expressed in rates - e.g., the number of primary care physicians or dentists per 1,000 population.
In sum, the variety of health care resources found in Centre County is impressive. Undoubtedly, gaps in services can be found, some of them attributable to geographic location and others to rises and falls in public and private financial support for the provider organizations and agencies. The extensive range of existing health care resources is reflected in the accompanying table of linkages in the Health Care Resources section.
