The Johnstown Free Medical Clinic, located at 340 Main Street in downtown Johnstown, has received a $66,137 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
At a news conference in Harrisburg recently, Secretary of Health Michael Wolf and Physician General Dr. Carrie DeLone announced 40 grant recipients awarded through the department’s Community-Based Health Care Subsidy Program.
Johnstown Free Medical Clinic was one of 73 applicants. The Free Clinic will use the funding to hire a physician assistant, a receptionist, and a medical room assistant.
“This is the beautiful part of it [receiving the grant],” said Rosalie Danchanko, Executive Director of the Johnstown Free Medical Clinic. “We will be able to expand services to meet the need. This grant continues to take us up to the next level of patient care and patient management.”
In addition to increased staffing, the grant will supply funds to purchase new computer equipment and programming in order to streamline administrative work and better track patients’ health needs, Danchanko added.
“This is a steppingstone into other opportunities for expanding the clinic,” Danchanko explained. “It opens more doors for us.”
Last year, the Johnstown Free Medical Clinic had more than 3400 patient encounters and provided over 6,000 prescriptions valued at nearly $2 million to those in need. The Free Clinic offers free medical and pharmaceutical care to the low income, uninsured population in the Laurel Highlands region of Western PA using volunteer professional staff.
