JPS Health Network is committed to delivering exceptional healthcare and comprehensive services to guarantee everyone access to the care they need. In December 2022, JPS broke ground on Medical Home Southwest Tarrant. The medical home is part of the first phase of work for the JPS Bond Program. This primary care clinic will provide a wide variety of healthcare services to Fort Worth's Wedgewood neighborhood residents in Southwest Tarrant County.
To ensure effective communication and meet the community's medical needs, JPS Health Network collaborated with community representatives to form the Community Advisory Group (CAG) near the new medical home.
"In July, as an Executive team, we met with our board members to convene with our leaders to see what the needs of our organization were," Shannon Fletcher, VP, Chief of Staff, said. "Our takeaway was that we have three priorities, and one of them was access. This is what this meeting represents. We're creating access by moving closer to the community.”
During the meeting, the group discussed a vital resource Medical Home Southwest Tarrant will offer to patients and explored the various ways of informing the community about it. Teneisha Kennard, Executive Director of Behavioral Health Ambulatory Services, mentioned that it will be the largest behavioral health footprint integrated into a JPS medical home. The floor plan will be designed to create a collaborative space between primary care and behavioral health professionals.
"Behavioral Health will have consult rooms embedded in the primary care side of the clinic as well as behavioral health clinicians who will sit with primary care on a day-to-day basis," Kennard said. "They will be an integrated part of the team and help facilitate the care of those in their offices. That has a lasting effect on access in two ways. We start to address the stigma associated with behavioral health because when you go to your medical home, your behavioral health needs are addressed. Secondly, by being able to treat those in the medical home who don’t have severe needs, we create space for those with serious mental health needs in our Center for Behavioral Health Recovery."
The Community Advisory Group will reconvene this fall. Medical Home Southwest is set to open in 2024. For the latest updates on the JPS Bond Program and Master Facility Plan, visit YestoJPS.org.