In 1963, Blue Ridge Health was founded by a compassionate nurse with the vision to eliminate health disparities among our regions most vulnerable populations. Today, Blue Ridge Health is a patient-centered medical home for anyone in the western North Carolina communities, delivering high-quality healthcare for more than 40,000 individuals annually. Blue Ridge Health is uniquely prepared to serve all of our communities. With health center locations in eight counties and thirteenSchool-Based Health Centers (SBHCs), we provide healthcare services with the patient in mind. All of our patients are offered the best care, close to home, and all under one roof.
This health center is a FQHC Health Center Program grantee under 42 I.S.C. 254b, and a deemed Public Health Service employee under 42 U.S.C. 233(g)-(n).BRCHS is an FTCA deemed organization that receives HHS funding and has Federal Public Health Service (PHS) deemed status with respect to certain health or health-related claims, including medical malpractice claims, for itself and its covered individuals.
Blue Ridge Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), a non-profit, community-based health organization. FQHCs provide comprehensive primary care, dental, and mental health services to patients within their area of service.
A part of FQHC guidelines requires Blue Ridge Health to have a Board of Directors comprised of at least 51% patient board members. This means that our organization and the care it provides to WNC is directly impacted by real patients and members of our communities.
As an FQHC Blue Ridge Health offers healthcare services to the underinsured and uninsured populations of Buncombe, Transylvania, Henderson, Rutherford, Polk, and Haywood counties while offering the same high-quality care to insured patients as well.
More than 50 years ago, The Migrant Health Center was started by Claire Heyden Burson, a Public Health nurse who had moved to Hendersonville after spending time working in the Caribbean. She and her colleagues and friends worked together to staff the early center. It was a time when farmworker rights were being noticed. When President John Kennedy signed the Migrant Health Act into law in 1962, the Migrant Health Center could receive federal funds.
Opened in 1963, Blue Ridge Health has its roots in providing migrant farmworkers with healthcare. In fact, Blue Ridge Health is the nations oldest migrant health center and today provides family and pediatric medical services as well as dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, school-based care, and outreach services to patients across western North Carolina.
In 1987, The Migrant Health Center evolved to become Blue Ridge Community Health Services (BRCHS) a year-round health center open to the entire community. At first, the health center was a full-time family practice. In 1992, a pediatric practice was opened, followed by a dental clinic for children in 1995.
In 1993, BRCHS opened the first school-based health center (SBHC) in Henderson County, providing students access to comprehensive nursing, medical, behavioral health, and nutrition services. In 2008, three additional SBHCs opened at two elementary schools, and a high school, providing healthcare for over 2,000 students. In 2013, five additional schools were linked to existing SBHCs, providing access to more than 6,000 students in Henderson County.
In 2009, Blue Ridge Community Health Services began planning for the construction of a new medical facility, Blue Ridge Health at Chimney Rock Road, which opened in late 2011. The state-of-the-art building serves as the medical home to thousands of individuals and houses family medicine, pediatrics, behavioral health, on-site pharmacy, lab, and radiology. Dental services and administrative offices reside in a separate building also located on the campus.
In October 2012, BRCHS opened a second health center in Transylvania County. Then, in 2013, Blue Ridge Community Health Services assumed the operations of Hendersonville Family Health Center as part of a partnership with Pardee Hospital and Mountain Area Health Education Center Family Practice Residency to establish the first Health Resource Services Administration-funded teaching health center in North Carolina. Two additional sites one in Rutherford County and the other in Buncombe county were opened in 2014.
This year Blue Ridge Community Health Services grew even further by adding new health center locations in Polk County and Haywood County. The Haywood County location was established in collaboration with Haywood Regional Medical Center.