‘It’s life-changing’: $2M Sentara Cares Innovation Fund continues expanding dental care maternal and child care

Nonprofit health care delivery system Sentara Health is well underway with its $2.7 million Innovation Fund, providing resources to federally qualified health centers in underserved Florida communities to expand access to health care to those previously confronted with few choices, if any.

Sentara is out with a new statewide digital campaign updating the public about advances that have already been made through the Innovation Fund.

For example, one ad features several medical professionals at the Jessie Trice Health Care System talking about a breakthrough dental apprenticeship program that’s effectively providing more dental care to more people in the community than ever before.

“Federally qualified health centers are the mainstays in many communities,” Jessie Trice Health Care System President and CEO Annie Neasman says in the ad, referring to access the system provides to those with otherwise limited access to health care.

“It’s like going to a super doctor’s office,” Neasman adds of the system, which provides dental care, behavioral health care, general health care and more.

But the system found it was having difficulty attracting health care professionals to serve as dental assistants.

“They wanted to expand their dental services with trained apprentices, but they needed help,” a narrator intones.

“You can have a dentist, but you need those who support the dentist,” Neasman continues in the ad.

The system’s executive vice president and Chief Dental Officer, Dr. Deborah George, said that’s when they decided to start an apprenticeship program.

The digital ad then pivots to students in the program, describing the impacts to their personal lives to access a living wage job in the health care industry as well as their excitement for contributing to client care.

“That could have never happened without Sentara’s assistance,” Neasman says. “Sentara has the same mission. It has the same goals. It has the same outcomes for what it wants this Miami-Dade County community to be … and we welcome that!”

The Sentara Cares Innovation Fund is working toward supporting community-based health programs that improve public health and reduce health inequities. Its fund is enabling centers like Jessie Trice to expand services in underserved communities, advancing locally identified health care needs the organizations would not have otherwise been able to fund themselves.

The Sentara Cares initiative is providing resources to train medical and dental assistants in markets where staffing shortages are prevalent. It also provides beds for the homeless, collectively providing increased health care access to tens of thousands of Floridians.

The company launched the initiative as part of a long-term commitment to ensuring continuity and equity of care throughout the state.

In addition to Jessie Trice, the Sentara Cares initiative is also providing funding for programs within the Suncoast Community Health Center serving Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sumter counties; Broward Community & Family Health Centers in Broward County; the Rural Health Network of Monroe County; the North Florida Medical Centers serving Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Lafayette, Leon, Madison, Okaloosa, Taylor and Wakulla counties; the Agape Community Health Center in Duval County; the Health Care Center for the Homeless serving Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties; and Bond Community Health Center in Leon County.

The initiative builds on more than $260 million invested in 2022 to support communities Sentara serves in Virginia and North Carolina.

“Sentara’s experience as an integrated health system has taught us that no health plan can successfully serve its members without aligning closely with community partners,” Sentara Health Plans’ Senior Vice President of Government Programs Patricia Darnley said when the initiative launched in October.

“Through the Sentara Innovation Fund, we’ve been able to identify and support new ideas developed by Federally Qualified Health Centers. With resources from the fund, these key safety net providers will be able to expand the services they offer, reach deeper into their communities and better serve the individuals who need the most support.”

Its latest digital outreach push also includes a short video playing in the Tampa Bay area, touting improvements to workforce training within the Suncoast Community Health Center locations.

“We get students from all walks of life,” says pharmacy technician Nila Patel in the spot.

Like the ad airing in Miami about Jessie Trice, the Suncoast Community Health Center piece also features students who have found meaningful careers in health care.

“They’re the heart and soul of this organization,” Suncoast Community Health Center CEO Bradley Herremans says, referring to pharmacy technicians and other medical assistants.

Tiffany Hamel, Executive Director for the affiliated Suncoast Career Academy, attributes improvements to health services to Sentara’s initiative.

“And just by Sentara providing financial support for an educational center, it’s life-changing,” she says in the ad.