WEST NEW YORK — North Hudson Community Action Corporation has earned the highest rating available to health centers from the Joint Commission, which awarded it the designation “Primary Care Medical Home” retroactive to the beginning of 2013, said Joan Quigley, executive director. NHCAC is a local non-profit that offers sliding scale health services and screenings to the area’s needy adults and children.
In July, surveyors from the Joint Commission, the nation’s standard-setting organization that rates health centers, hospitals and other health facilities, visited the North Hudson Community Action Corporation health center in West New York. Over two days they talked with patients and staff, reviewed records, and examined equipment and assessed the overall sanitation and safety of the facility.
Created in 1965 as North Hudson Community Action Program, NHCAC provides health and human services across three counties in New Jersey, including health care, emergency food and shelter, transitional housing, and mental health and addiction services.
According to NHCAC, Hudson County became the poorest county in New Jersey during the economic downturn and is also home to one of the poorest New Jersey municipalities, Union City. To combat that poverty and strengthen the population, NHCAC took on various initiatives utilizing the millions in stimulus funds it received from the federal government to serve residents all over Hudson County, from North Bergen to Hoboken.
In July 2012, Gov. Christopher Christie increased funding for federally qualified health centers from last year’s $46.4 million to $50 million to be distributed through 20 such centers across the state including NHCAP to provide low-cost services to needy people.
The non-profit agency, which — in addition to providing health care for local needy people — helps Hudson County residents find employment, informed laid-off employees that they would be placed on the top of their job-seeking list.
Only three Federally Qualified Health Center corporations in New Jersey have earned full accreditation.
Dr. Jorge Verea and Dr. Carmen Mallamaci, Medical Directors of North Hudson Community Action Corporation, said they were pleased to receive the new designation and expressed thanks to their care giving teams for joining them in the effort to attain the highest standard. – By Al Sullivan.
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