Beginning in July, the school-based health centers in three SDoL schools will have a new operator.
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health is transitioning the operation of centers at Carter & MacRae Elementary, Washington Elementary and McCaskey High to Union Community Care, which operates the other two centers, at Fulton Elementary and Reynolds Middle, which will expand healthcare services to the centers’ previous range of services.
LG Health plans to continue providing $1.5 million in support to SDOL for health-related efforts.
Union Community Care is a federally-qualified health center with the capacity to bring expanded healthcare services and a payment model that keeps services affordable to students, staff, their families, and the community. UCC accepts all insurances, provides payment plans, and offers a Sliding Free Discount Program for medical and preventive dental services provided at their centers for those who have insurance, are underinsured, or are uninsured.
“Union Community Care and the School District of Lancaster have had a strong history of collaboration,” said Dr. Anne-Marie Derrico, Chief Medical Officer of Union Community Care and SDoL Physician Consultant. “For Union Community Care, it’s a matter of welcoming three more schools to our existing school-based health model of care so that we can provide accessible, convenient, and seamlessly coordinated healthcare services to students and families across the SDoL and in the community.”
LG Health opened SDoL’s first health center in 1992, at Fulton Elementary School, and later added locations at Carter & MacRae and Washington. In 2016, LG Health opened an extension of their Downtown Family Medicine practice at McCaskey High School, in the JP building. The LG Health centers provided more than 2,500 healthcare visits annually to SDoL students and staff. Union Community Care assumed operation of LG Health’s Fulton Elementary School center in early 2023.
“Our partnership with the School District of Lancaster proactively addressed health-related barriers to learning and supported generations of healthy students,” said John Herman, FACHE, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of LG Health. “We look forward to continuing this collaborative approach with Union Community Care by further leveraging our strengths and expanding essential services that benefit the health and well-being of students today and in the future.”
Union Community Care’s mission is to spark equity through patient-led healthcare that welcomes and strengthens communities by integrating body, mind, and heart. They have integrated 360 Care through family medical care, urgent sick care, dental care, behavioral health support, social support, and a pharmacy —all in the same area or nearby.
“Our students are prepared to thrive academically only when their basic needs are met, and it is a priority of our district to support students as comprehensively as we can,” said Matt Przywara, SDoL’s acting superintendent. “We rely on partnerships like these with Union Community Care and LG Health, and we are grateful for the ways they address the healthcare needs of our students and their families.”