News and Events

People's Health Centers, Inc. (PHC) has been in the forefront in the provision of quality health care to the medically undeserved for the past 30 years. PHC was established as a free clinic in 1972 and in 1979 became an Urban Health Initiative Section 330 funded community-based health center. PHC’s history and mission reflect accessible, comprehensive medical services through the establishment of broad-based collaborations and partnerships to maximize health care for those vulnerable to disease and disability. In addition, this year will mark the beginning of the 25th anniversary of Betty Jean Kerr serving as the C.E.O. Under her leadership and that of the 15-member Board of Directors, the quality of our comprehensive services has been awarded a second full 3-year accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

PHC provides comprehensive primary care services for residents throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Corporate offices are located in St. Louis City at 5701 Delmar Blvd. Three additional satellite offices are located in Maplewood at 7200 Manchester Rd., in north St. Louis county at 11642 West Florissant Rd. and at 5331 Enright Avenue in the city. PHC also provides services to several school districts, community sites and mobile van destinations. PHC’s service area is comprised of 106,029 Medicaid recipients with 50,193 individuals without insurance to pay for health care, regardless of condition. The St. Louis City facility serves a high concentration of minority residents, single heads of households with high levels of poverty. The Maplewood and North St. Louis County facility, serves mostly uninsured residents also with high levels of poverty. All areas experience poor health status indicators associated with low socioeconomic conditions such as: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer.

PHC provides a wide spectrum of health services in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, dental, ultrasound, radiology, mammography, podiatry, pharmacy, laboratory, and family life enrichment. Health education, public health nursing, MH/SA and mobile van screenings, school-based services, and other enabling services also provide community health intervention components for a seamless approach to health and wellness and to expand the safety net for uninsured residents.

PHC also provides a number of coordinated programs through the support of state, county and local health departments. These programs have a positive impact on chronic disease intervention, health care resource identification, risk reduction, disease awareness, improvement in access to care, family planning services, lead poisoning prevention, improvement of immunization rates, breast and cervical cancer control, and teenage pregnancy prevention. Collaborative arrangements also exist with other agencies to increase community health awareness and health promotion opportunities specifically for St. Louis residents. Corporate diversification has also allowed further service expansion and health prevention program development into surrounding housing facilities.

Cancer screening access is a significant problem in St. Louis. According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, cancer deaths are the second leading cause of death in St. Louis and clearly represent a serious opportunity for prevention. Cancer, along with homicide, depression, chronic disease, infant mortality and morbidity, alcohol and substance abuse, represent community health problems occurring more frequently among uninsured, Medicaid and underinsured minority residents of the City of St. Louis, than in any other part of the State. To address the health disparities facing residents of the targeted population, PHC has 18 medical and dental providers to address the most critical health issues in the community with emphasis on eliminating chronic disease health disparities through the effective expansion of PHC’s diabetes, cardiovascular, asthma, and cancer collaborative until we have achieved the goal of primary prevention that is described under the Healthy People 2010 Objectives. Chronic disease management is clearly reflected in PHC’s health care plan with resources allocated to promote the integration of cancer prevention education, screening, assessment and treatment with the chronic disease collaborative care (CDCC) model to reach evidence based guideline goals.