and Darryl Granger
Bengal News reporters
For over ten years, Jericho Road Family Practice on Barton Street has been providing patient-centered medical services to refugee families throughout the West Side. This approach to healthcare allows Jericho Road to take a proactive role in treating its patients by identifying people who are considered at risk in the community and targeting them for support.
This month, the practice was awarded the highest accreditation in patient-centered medical home standards by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, or NCQA. The recognition is a major achievement for the small practice and might make Jericho Road eligible for more funding.
“We don’t have sufficient resources to meet all the needs that come through our door,” says Brett Lawton, chief operating officer of Jericho Road Family Practice. “The additional revenue would help us to hire patient educators that speak the language of our patients.”
Jericho Road Family Ministries, the sister organization of the practice, helps out by providing refugees with social needs while the practice deals with health care.
Jericho Road COO Brett Lawton defines patient-centered medical practice:
“We do our own screening… we’re looking for people that are interested in building a better life and not wanting to be on Social Services,” said director of partner development Eric Budin.
The process of someone coming from another country to the United States can be long and difficult.
“Refugees come to the United States and are hooked up with a resettlement agency, and the agency provides the person with basic needs and helps them work on job skills and English as a second language,” Budin said.
“After six months,” he continued, “the benefits that they receive from federal government agencies fall off. We then help them with the post-resettlement process by picking up after the agency.”
Refugees choose to come to Buffalo because it is an ideal city for them to start their new lives, said Suzy Derksen, program support coordinator.
With Buffalo growing as a popular destination for refugees, the accreditation of Jericho Road means the practice can expand to help the incoming population. Currently, many patients are turned away because the practice simply doesn’t have the manpower to help all who need it.
Most of the patients visiting Jericho Road receive Medicaid assistance, but the group also provides health services to individuals who may not be able to pay for it.
Jericho Road Family Practice also prides itself on its ability to take a proactive role in the community.
The practice takes the time to find the people who are most at risk in the community, giving it the patient-centered medical home designation. Although the Practice is now eligible for more funding, the funding itself may not be available as recent government budget cuts are threatening funding to these medical centers.
“When you add up all the cuts that are proposed…everyone of them affects our organization,” Budin said.
Edited by Michael Meiler and Samantha Murphy
