Community Hospital of Bremen - Free Space for Social Service Agencies Program

What is it?

The Community Hospital of Bremen donates space in its physician clinic facility to a broad range of community service organizations. These include the Women’s Care Center, which provides pregnancy testing, counseling, crib clubs, maternity clothes, and single parenting groups in English and Spanish, and serves as a Medicaid and Healthy Indiana Plan enrollment site; the county’s council on aging, which operates a medication assistance program for low-income seniors, and also helps them enroll in Medicare Part D and prepare their taxes; the county health department, which uses the clinic one day a month to administer free childhood immunizations; a marriage and family program, which trains couples to be marriage mentors for engaged couples and provides divorce mediation services; and a weekly weight-loss and nutrition group. Not only are the organizations welcome to use the facility rent-free, the hospital also carries the cost for telephone, Internet, housekeeping, and maintenance services.

Who is it for?

The program benefits local health and social service organizations as rent-free tenants, and the entire community as consumers of social services.

Why do they do it?

Historically, health and social service agencies have been concentrated in the county seat 18 miles away. This distance was a barrier to low-income individuals, the elderly, and especially to the local Amish population who travel by horse and buggy. The high cost of leasing office space was always a barrier for agencies in the area. Being a small, rural critical access hospital, the Community Hospital of Bremen cannot meet all community health needs; however, through partnering with other organizations who share its healing mission, the hospital expanded community care options and provided a tangible community benefit.

Impact

Among the outcomes are increased immunization rates (about 35 children per month) for low-income families, especially local Hispanic and Amish populations where the increase has been dramatic since Amish children are not routinely screened for immunization status because they do not attend public schools; a decrease in the number of single women who have not had prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy, partly as a result of the Women’s Care Center’s rewards system for keeping medical appointments; and overflowing attendance at the follow-up programs for single parents, which include one English-speaking group and two Spanish-speaking groups.

Contact: Scott R. Graybill
President/Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: 574-546-2211
E-mail: sgraybill@bremenhospital.com