The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement (PCE) Golf Committee members, front row from left, are Mary Marrara, co-chair of PCE; Peter Moses, honorary chair; and Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education and co-chair of PCE; second row, Wright Center employees Lori Cotrone, Kara Seitzinger, Helayna Szescila, Ron Daniels, Edward Walsh, Jane Danish, and Mark Zulkoski.

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement (PCE) will hold its second annual charity golf tournament on Monday, May 13 at the Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic to support patients throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.

The captain-and-crew Dr. William Waters Golf Tournament will feature a shotgun start at 10 a.m., following registration from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. The driving range opens at 8:30 a.m.

The tournament is in honor of the late John P. Moses, Esq. a Wilkes-Barre native, influential attorney, and longtime philanthropist whose leadership was key in helping facilitate the establishment of The Wright Center for Community Health Wilkes-Barre Practice, the largest primary health center in the nonprofit’s network of 10 locations in Northeast Pennsylvania. The new Luzerne County location opened on Jan. 9, 2023, after the urgent relocation of its clinic from First Hospital in Kingston, amidst the hospital’s closure.

The Wright Center plans to name the Wilkes-Barre Practice building, at 169 N. Pennsylvania Ave., after Moses, who passed away on Oct. 31, 2022.

His many meaningful contributions to the nonprofit sector can never be overstated. It is a privilege to raise resources in his honor to ensure everyone has access to high-quality, whole-person primary health services, regardless of their insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay.”

PCE aims to improve the health of our communities through education, advocacy, and patient-centered services that help individuals overcome food insecurity, homelessness, and other factors. Factors also include limited access to educational opportunities and a lack of financial resources. To address the needs of our regional communities, PCE’s team and volunteers hold community outreach activities, including nutritious food distributions of nonperishable items and fresh produce, coat and winterwear giveaways, back-to-school distributions of backpacks and classroom supplies, health fairs, blood drives, and other special mission-driven projects.

Last year’s inaugural charity golf tournament raised more than $40,000. The tournament is named after the late William M. Waters, Ph.D., who served as vice chair of The Wright Center for Community Health’s Board of Directors and co-chair of PCE. He passed away on July 21, 2022.

The entry fee for golfers is $275 or $1,100 for a foursome, which includes a golf cart, green fee, lunch, and beverage service on the course, followed by a 3 p.m. cocktail hour and 4 p.m. dinner. Tickets for the dinner only are $100.

Prizes will be awarded for closest to the pin, longest drive, and hole-in-one, including a special prize for a hole-in-one on a designated hole: a 2024 Honda Accord LX, courtesy of Matt Burne Honda, an event sponsor. Other event sponsors are: Audacy; Community Bank, N.A.; and PNC.

Various sponsorship levels, starting at just $300, are available for the tournament. For sponsorship details and inquiries, please contact Holly Przasnyski, PCE board coordinator, at [email protected] or 570-209-3275.

Prior to The Wright Center, Gill was an attending physician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and an assistant professor at Penn State College of Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She also saw patients at the Penn State Medical Group Camp Hill.

A Penn State University graduate, Gill received her Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s St. Margaret Hospital. At the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Gill completed a fellowship in faculty development, where she also earned a multidisciplinary master’s degree in public health.

Gill is a member of the American Association of Family Physicians, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and Family Medicine Education Consortium. She is on the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health, the chairperson of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Oral Health Collaborative, and a steering committee member of Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum.

The Wright Center is one of the largest U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration-funded Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education consortiums in the nation. It offers residencies in four disciplines – family medicine, internal medicine, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and psychiatry – as well as fellowships in cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology, and geriatrics. All of its programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Visit TheWrightCenter.org to learn more about how The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s physician workforce pipeline is educating and training the next generation of physicians and interprofessional providers.

Regional residency programs welcome 51 doctors

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education welcomed 51 new resident physicians into its regional residency programs after achieving a 100% match on National Match Day for aspiring doctors.

The National Resident Matching Program’s Match Day is held annually on the third Friday of March. Medical students nation- and worldwide simultaneously learn at which U.S. residency program they will train for the next three to seven years. It is one of the most important and competitive processes in the medical school experience.

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education looks forward to Match Day each year as it learns which medical school graduates will continue their training in its Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited, comprehensive, and community-focused residency programs in Northeast Pennsylvania. The Wright Center is one of the largest Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Consortiums in the country, with more than 245 physicians in training.

The Wright Center matched residents in the following regional programs: Family Medicine Residency (13); Internal Medicine Residency (33); and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency (5). Resident physicians will begin the first year of their residencies on July 1 in Scranton.

The incoming first-year residents hail from 13 countries: Bahrain (1); Canada (6); China (1); India (9); Nepal (3); Pakistan (12); Philippines (2); Saint Lucia (1); Saudi Arabia (1); Serbia (1); Uganda (1); United Kingdom (1); and the United States (12).

The residency programs received 5,072 applications and interviewed 516 candidates, or about 10.17% of the applicants. The National Resident Matching Program makes residency matches, using a mathematical algorithm to pair graduating medical students with open training positions at teaching health centers, educational consortia, hospitals, and other institutions across the U.S. The model considers the top choices of both students and residency programs.

“Match Day is one of the most exciting days of the academic year and a celebration to welcome our new residents,” said Jumee Barooah, M.D., designated institutional official and senior vice president of education at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. “For the residents, the day represents the culmination of years of hard work and perseverance that began at an early age. For The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, it marks another milestone in meeting our mission.”

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education was established in 1976 as the Scranton-Temple Residency Program, a community-based internal medicine residency. Today, The Wright Center is one of the nation’s largest HRSA-funded Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortiums. Together with consortium stakeholders, The Wright Center trains residents and fellows in a community-based, community-needs-responsive workforce development model to advance their shared mission to provide whole-person primary health services regardless of their insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay.

The Wright Center offers ACGME accredited residencies in three disciplines – family medicine, internal medicine, and physical medicine & rehabilitation – as well as fellowships in cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology, and geriatrics.

The Wright Center began offering dental services at the Mid Valley Practice, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn, in 2013 and then expanded to the Scranton Practice, 501 S. Washington Ave. Earlier this year, the Wilkes-Barre Practice, 169 N. Pennsylvania Ave., began providing routine dental services – including exams, X-rays, and cleanings – for children and adults on Mondays and Tuesdays. To learn more or to make an appointment, visit TheWrightCenter.org/services/dental or call 570-230-0019.

The Wright Center accepts most dental insurances, including Delta Dental, Guardian, United Concordia, and Medical Assistance (Medicaid). To ensure high-quality oral care is available to everyone, The Wright Center offers a sliding-fee discount program to individuals who qualify based on Federal Poverty Guidelines that consider family size and income. No patient is turned away due to an inability to pay.

World Oral Health Day is an initiative of the FDI World Dental Federation, which represents more than 1 million dentists worldwide.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, center, received the Hometown Scholar Advocate of the Year award during a clinical practice committee meeting at the National Association of Community Health Centers Policy & Issues Forum in Washington, D.C. Participating in the program are Douglas Spegman, M.D., left, board member, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education; and Gary L. Cloud, Ph.D., MBA, right, vice president of university partnerships at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona. The award recognizes Dr. Thomas-Hemak for her passionate, mission-driven efforts to identify and mentor future physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and other health care professionals from Northeast Pennsylvania.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, recently received the Hometown Scholars Advocate of the Year award in recognition of her passionate, mission-driven efforts to identify and mentor future physicians, dentists, physician assistants, and other health care professionals who are from Northeast Pennsylvania.

Dr. Thomas received the award on Sunday, Feb. 11, during a clinical practice committee meeting at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) Policy & Issues Forum in Washington, D.C.

The Hometown Scholars program is a collaborative effort between NACHC and A.T. Still University. The program was established to identify and recruit individuals from areas served by community health centers to pursue professional degrees and become community-minded healers, including physicians, dentists, and physician assistants, who are inclined to return to work in those or similar medically underserved communities in the United States.

“The National Association of Community Health Centers and A.T. Still University have a strategy to dare children to dream, mentor them along their pathway into the health professions, and endorse those with the heart to return and work in underserved communities,” said Gary L. Cloud, Ph.D., MBA, vice president of university partnerships at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona. “Dr. Thomas-Hemak and The Wright Center have been exemplary supporters of that strategy encouraging community members, patients, and employees to participate and serve as role models for aspiring healers.”

At participating community health centers, leaders are encouraged to intentionally identify and nominate qualified and motivated premedical, predental, and pre-health professional candidates from their communities for Hometown Scholars Program consideration, providing each with a letter of support. This endorsement, in turn, may give the candidate advanced applicant consideration when applying to medical school or dental school at A.T. Still University’s programs in Arizona or its physician assistant program in California.

“It’s been a privilege for me, on behalf of The Wright Center for Community Health, to nominate individuals from Northeast Pennsylvania to be our health center’s endorsed Hometown Scholars,” said Thomas-Hemak. “Because of the Hometown Scholars program, we’ve been able to identify and mentor aspiring physicians, dentists, and physician assistants from the communities we serve and help them pursue their professional goals. Such pipeline programs promote career access and they restore our community’s public health-minded health care workforce.

“I’m particularly pleased that many of The Wright Center-endorsed scholars are women for whom this program has provided real opportunities,” she added.

For The Wright Center, its years-long participation in the Hometown Scholars program represents another way it works to sustain and grow a pipeline for primary care workforce development in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre region, supporting career growth for people who have knowledge about and interest in serving low-income and other traditionally underserved populations.

To learn more and nominate someone to be a Wright Center-endorsed Hometown Scholar, please call its Office of Clerkships at 570-591-5116 or visit TheWrightCenter.org/hometown-scholars.

Mid Valley maintains distinction for Behavioral Health Integration

The Patient-Centered Medical Home model is designed to allow patients and their care teams to build better relationships, help patients to more effectively control chronic conditions, and improve the overall patient experience.

In addition, the model has been shown to increase staff satisfaction and reduce health care costs.

For the public, the NCQA accreditation is a signal that The Wright Center for Community Health maintains a focus on quality improvement and has key processes in place so its clinics are prioritizing the needs of patients.

“We are proud to retain this recognition seal at our four larger practices,” said Dr. Jignesh Sheth, chief medical and information officer of The Wright Center for Community Health. “The NCQA seal lets the public know we are doing all we can to put patients at the forefront of care, including by opening these clinics outside traditional business hours to meet people’s primary care needs

In particular, Dr. Sheth credited the work being done by The Wright Center’s employees to use a team-based delivery system and information technology to coordinate care and get the best results possible for patients.

The Mid Valley Practice’s certification carries an additional NCQA distinction in behavioral health integration. This recognition is for practices that have proven they have the appropriate care team in place to manage the broad needs of patients with conditions related to behavioral health.

“Many times, behavioral health conditions are first identified by a primary care provider,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president. “So, adding behavioral health care services in a primary care setting is a real opportunity for patients. It knocks down barriers to behavioral care and improves overall health.”

The Wright Center operates 10 primary and preventive care practices in Northeast Pennsylvania, including a mobile medical and dental vehicle called Driving Better Health. Its practices offer integrated whole-person care, typically giving patients the convenience of going to a single location to access medical, dental, and behavioral health care, as well as community-based addiction treatment and recovery services.

The Wright Center accepts most major health insurance plans, including Medical Assistance (Medicaid), Medicare, and CHIP. No patient is turned away due to an inability to pay.