Community Health Center Receives $50K MassDevelopment Grant

August 1, 2023 : The Daily Item, James Bartlett

LYNN — Lynn Community Health Center has received a nearly $50,000 grant from MassDevelopment to fund equipment, renovations, and technology-related projects.

The center will use the $49,336 to bolster its telehealth offerings by purchasing audio and video equipment to be installed in 14 small- and medium-sized meeting rooms at LCHC’s several locations throughout the city with the aim of improving patient engagement.

“We are thrilled to receive this funding through MassDevelopment’s Community Health Center Grant Program,” LCHC interim CEO Geoffrey Pechinsky said. “The AV upgrade will provide LCHC’s health-care providers a secure place to easily host group sessions, group visits, and team meetings, which can include discussion of confidential and sensitive patient health information, and interpretation services.”

Tonya Ingram, program administrator for the Community Health Center Program at MassDevelopment, said the grant would allow LCHC to better serve the needs of its community.

“We look at things like the viability of the project, the need for the project, and the benefit of the project for the target population,” Ingram said. “The Lynn Community Health Center scored very highly on these criteria.”

According to the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, 31% of all ambulatory visits in Massachusetts and 65.6% of mental-health visits were conducted via telehealth in 2020.

Telehealth use was also higher for patients with more chronic conditions, in urban communities, and with better internet access.

“As technology continues to advance, so do we,” Pechinsky said. “It is partnerships such as these that recognize and allow us to continue to provide vital, yet low-barrier, health-care services within our community.”

The grant is part of $519,457 in total funding awarded by MassDevelopment to 11 community health centers across the state last month.