BURRILLVILLE – For the fourth year running, a Pascoag-based health center has been named among the best in the country, receiving a gold Community Health Quality Recognition award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
WellOne Primary Medical and Dental Care, also known as Northwest Community Health Care, added another gold badge to the list of achievements with the announcement of HRSA’s annual awards.
Last year, WellOne was the only health center in the state to earn the designation for three consecutive years.
And with the latest round of awards, it has broken national records for community heath centers.
“No one has ever won this four years in a row,” noted board member Margaret Dudley.
The awards recognize achievements in improving health outcomes and providing high-quality care for patients in rural and underserved communities, honoring health centers across the country that have attained the best overall clinical quality performance.
According to the latest data, the Pascoag-based center serves roughly 16,100 patients, with additional locations in Foster, Scituate and North Kingstown. Of those patients, 21 percent are over age 65, and 196 are best served in a language other than English.
The center offers medical, dental and behavioral health services with offices along Bridge Way and Pascoag Main St., and has expanded in recent years to include specialty care. It was founded 1909 as a result of a public meeting and to address the growing threat of tuberculosis to the local textile mills. In the 115 years since the founding of the Burrillville Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the center has changed names five times.
According to a summary published on WellOne’s history, the center’s first and initially only employee was nurse Molly Malone, who traveled by foot or in a borrowed horse and buggy to care for residents in all of Burrillville’s villages. A medical facility on the Frank Potter Bridgeway opened in 1954 on land donated by the Levy family.
The history notes that WellOne has often been ahead of its time in patient care, from a decision to issue a, “free card,” to patients who were unable to pay, to implementing a practice of vaccinating every child entering school at least 15 years before either the state or the country created such standards. In 1965, it hosted the first measles clinic in Rhode Island, for which the American Medical Association awarded first prize for a public health exhibit the next year. The events was followed by the first community-wide mumps clinic in the nation in 1969.
Under President and CEO Peter Bancroft, WellOne partnered with CharterCARE Health Partners and Cardiovascular Institute of New England in 2019 to have specialists in urology, radiology, gastroenterology, and weight loss surgery on site at 82 Pascoag Main St.
Today, Well One employs a staff of 170 between its four locations.
“We seek to be the leader in community-based primary care,” notes the WellOne mission “We serve all patients regardless of race, color, national origin, religious affiliation, gender identity/expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability or ability to pay.”
Announced in late August, this year’s “gold” award recipients included three other Rhode Island health centers. But only Well One has been named among the top ten percent in the U.S. every year since 2021.
“WellOne is the primary medical, dental and behavioral health provider of choice for the residents of the Rhode Island communities that we serve,” notes a vision statement from the health center. “As a result of our efforts, these residents have achieved the highest attainable level of physical, psychological and social well-being.”
Congratulations Well One. Mr. & Mrs. Levy would be very proud.
Congrats WellOne. I was privileged to have worked there as a medical assistant for 4 years before I left to obtain my dream to become a registered nurse. They made me the nurse I am today!