The Community Health Center of the New River Valley (Health Center, CHCNRV) is a non-profit federally qualified health center (FQHC) serving Southwest Virginia. It was founded in 1980 as a free clinic and transitioned to become an FQHC in 2013.
CHCNRV operates four permanent clinical sites in three contiguous counties and one city: Montgomery, Giles, and Pulaski Counties, and the City of Radford. It also operates a school-based site within rural Pulaski County High School.
By far, the largest site is at 215 Roanoke Street in Christiansburg. It has been provided at no cost by Montgomery County since 2002. This in-kind gift has allowed the clinic to flourish and grow into today’s stellar Community Health Center, an organization recognized as one of the top 10% in the United States.
The mission is to provide affordable, high-quality medical, dental, behavioral, and preventive health care services to people of all ages and circumstances, regardless of their ability to pay. The Health Center is the only health care entity in our service area that offers comprehensive, integrated outpatient services on a sliding fee scale to low-income, uninsured, and underserved populations.
All services at the Health Center are integrated, not simply co-located. They hold NCQA Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration that calls for a primary care setting to have a care team (care coordinators, psychiatrists, peers, and other practitioners) in place to manage the broad needs of patients with conditions related to mental health and/or substance use, focusing on the use of evidence-based protocols and ongoing quality measurement and improvement.
The healthcare barriers faced by many in the New River Valley include:
• a high rate of poverty
• a lack of providers accepting Medicaid
• transportation difficulties
• cultural obstacles
• a well-documented shortage of providers in rural markets
As a long-established safety net provider, the Community Health Center is committed to reducing barriers and maximizing access to care for our most vulnerable residents. Over the last full fiscal year (FY2024), they provided 30,473 patient visits. This represents an explosive 437 percent growth over the past ten years.
While the generosity of Montgomery County has allowed the Health Center to meet immediate needs, CHCNRV has outgrown the space. The facility is too old to modernize and too small to accommodate further growth. Patients deserve a health care home that is welcoming and dignified.
The new facility will be 30,000 square feet (two floors combined), with an additional 10,000 square feet of parking lot.
On the first floor is a dedicated addiction treatment wing with its own entrance, reception and waiting areas, treatment spaces, and a large group room. The on-site pharmacy will distribute Suboxone, facilitating successful MAT (medication assisted treatment) for our patients with opioid use disorder.
The new facility will include spaces and infrastructure for telehealth (medical, dental, and behavioral health), infection control spaces, and functional patient flow.
We are excited about the planned dedicated space for our growing behavioral health program, especially our office-based opioid treatment program (OBOT), the demand for which has skyrocketed over the past four years.
The second floor includes the dental unit, which includes 14 operatories, a sterilization area, a denture lab, a dedicated dental waiting area, and offices for the planned Dental Residency Program, which will admit its first students in 2027. The administrative suite, which includes conference and training rooms, is also on the second floor.
OAA funding is requested to cover a portion of the construction costs for the new facility. The total projected construction costs are $9,600,000. This amount does not include site work, inspection fees, equipment, utility installation, or contingencies. Since approximately 44% of the facility will be the OBOT facility, the request is for 44% of the construction and architectural costs.
