Family Health Network of Central New York (FHN) was first established in 1972, and took responsibility for three rural health centers, originally run by the Cortland County Health Department. The area, located in Central New York State and equidistant from the urban population centers in Binghamton and Syracuse, New York is geographically isolated, and included a high percentage of poor and near-poor residents under 200% of the federal poverty level, many of them farmworkers on local dairy farms.
A community survey in the early 1970s showed that the major community concern was the lack of primary and obstetrical medical care. The area’s physicians had moved, “The rights, privacy, and dignity of each patient and their families, along with quality medical care, shall be of the highest priority.”
aged into retirement or passed away, leaving the villages with little or no care. To address these needs, the Appalachian Regional Commission funded, in 1974, a demonstration project using physician’s assistants to deliver primary care to three of these small farming communities at sites originally sponsored by the Cortland County Health Department. Initially there was some local resistance to this program. Some remaining community physicians had reservations about what they regarded as “stop-gap” measures and others were leery of physician’s assistants “practicing as MDs without having earned the privilege”. Others felt that the program had “secured a monopoly” on A community survey in the early 1970s showed that the major community concern was the lack of primary and obstetrical medical care. The area’s physicians had moved, aged into retirement or passed away, leaving the villages with little or no care.
practice in certain areas of the county and that would make it difficult to attract young physicians to rural areas. However, the program prevailed. Dr. Stewart Vernooy, who had previously established a PA training program in Cortland, adapted the PA program for these sites, which became the original service sites of the Cortland County Rural Health Services, and were later renamed Family Health Network of central New York. The center was dedicated to the delivery of quality family medicine, emphasizing in its mission statement, “The rights, privacy, and dignity of each patient and their families, along with quality medical care, shall be of the highest priority.”
Over the years, the center has developed innovative programs to address the changing needs of the area’s residents. The city of Cortland changed from one with a solid manufacturing base with stable jobs, good salaries and benefits to a small-business and service based economy, with the resultant increase in unemployment and decrease in the number of insured individuals and families. A clinical site in Cortland was developed as the needs of this population grew.
FHN also developed the first rural, school-based health centers in New York to address the needs of children whose parents work far from home and may be unable to take them to the center for care. The center is funded as a Rural Health Clinic (RHC) as well as a Federally Qualified Health center (FQHC.)
