Tucked away in the pine trees, west of Interstate 45, sits the Lone Star Family Health Center (LSFHC). The 501(c)3 nonprofit’s mission is “to strengthen, stabilize and expand patient access to healthcare services in Montgomery County.” You’d never guess when the front doors slide open that the facility’s services target the uninsured and low-income population. LSFHC’s building is as beautiful as its mission to provide high-quality and holistic care to all who walk into its lobby.
Captaining the organization’s trajectory through the complicated waters of healthcare is CEO Karen Harwell. Harwell, a graduate of Texas A&M University and a CPA, has a background working in Oil and gas, which she says is about as “for-profit as you can get.” Later, she switched industries to for-profit healthcare and, after a move to The Woodlands, took the step into nonprofit healthcare. She started as CFO of LSFHC and four years into her tenure, she took over as CEO. Harwell is a combination of obvious competency and down-to-earth charisma with an enthusiasm for using her background to solve interesting problems. She seems a perfect fit for tackling the unique dilemmas that come with managing nonprofit healthcare.
Despite the stewardship of a complex combination of third-party payments, grants, and government funding required, Harwell says that she is “never leaving. This is how it’s supposed to be.” LSFHC’s care is structured around the uninsured patient. While it can sometimes be hard to make the dollars stretch, the model has advantages. Instead of worrying about how many times a patient can become a billable unit, LSFHC takes a one-stop shop approach. Many patients have limited access to transportation or childcare. So instead, when the patient comes in, the hope is to get everything completed in one visit, if possible.
The LSFHC Conroe location provides a wide range of services built on a foundation of ongoing family practice. These include Family Medicine, Women’s Health, Dental, Behavioral Health, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Imaging, Medication Therapy, and Nutrition. They also have four satellite locations scattered throughout the county (Willis, Spring, Grangerland, and Huntsville) that provide family medicine and behavioral health, with an additional pharmacy in Huntsville.
With the population growth in Montgomery County, the rising demand for services has LSFHC in expansion mode. The main campus now sits next to broken ground, where a new building will open in August of 2024. The building will add an additional care/treatment space (called pods), a separate area for behavioral health, much-needed room to house administration offices, and hopefully the addition of vision care.
According to Harwell, the industry overall is making moves to change incentive structures to more closely resemble the one that LSFHC runs. Producing a healthy patient, rather than paying on how many times that patient comes to visit, is beginning to be encouraged with additional compensation. This has produced an emerging department in health care called the “care coordination team.” The department is usually made up of nurses and clinical care staff who manage patients between appointments by checking on follow-up visits and referrals.
Twenty percent of LSFHC’s work is in women’s health. Believe it or not, the population growth in Montgomery County isn’t just from people moving to the area. Harwell says that the county has lots of births and that the population of Conroe is getting slightly younger. LSFHC is improving the health of area women by getting as many into prenatal care as possible. In their target population, it is common to have uninsured “drop-ins” show up in the emergency department to deliver their babies. The drop-ins kept the center’s two former OB/GYNs on call every other day, which means that someone was delivering a baby every night. Now, they have four OB/GYNs and a partnership with another practice to deliver babies at Conroe. This leaves the OB/GYNs more room in their schedule to provide ongoing prenatal care to patients. The doctors at LSFHC work closely together, including the family practice and the OB/GYNs. This prevents a lapse in care before, during, and after pregnancy for both the mother and the child.
Two of the facility's doctors (Lata Joshi, M.D., F.A.A.F.P. – Chief Medical Officer and Thomas J. Patton, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. – OB/GYN Physician), emphasize the importance of women getting the proper screenings. Uninsured or underinsured women can come and get their annual mammograms and Pap smear tests. Dr. Joshi also notes that the number one cause of mortality among women is heart disease. Incidentally, Harwell says LSFHC’s most underutilized service is diabetes education and nutrition counseling. Mary Jo Reeser, RD, is LSFHC’s staff nutritionist. Harwell calls her “fantastic” and emphasizes the importance of nutrition in preventing issues down the road.
Through its integrated approach to healthcare, commitment to high-quality care, and passion for the population it serves, LSFHC is making a real difference in the lives of those who live in Montgomery County. LoneStarFamily.org