Neighborhood Health continues expansion around Richmond Highway corridor

Neighborhood Health, a 25-year-old nonprofit healthcare provider serving lower income individuals, has been on a continued expansion path since opening its first clinic along the Richmond Highway corridor in Fairfax County 10 years ago.

The Federally Qualified Health Center, which is headquartered at 6677 Richmond Highway, has a clinical site at that location, as well as at the Gerry Hyland Government Center, the Sherwood Hall Medical Center and the Gartlan Center on Holland Road. Now, thanks to an $800,000 federal grant, Neighborhood Health is in the process of renovating and expanding its medical facilities at 6677 Richmond Highway, according to Dr. Basim Khan, the nonprofit’s executive director and a primary care physician.

“What we’re doing is adding prenatal care and obstetrics for the first time at Neighborhood Health along the Richmond Highway corridor,” said Khan, noting that the new practice will help provide continuity at the clinic, which already offers women’s health, internal medicine, pediatrics, behavioral health and dental care.

The grant also will help finance the expansion of the headquarters’ dental space from four to six chairs and enable the organization to open an in-house pharmacy in the building’s basement. Other renovations include replacement of the facility’s elevator and renovation of the second-floor space to include an expanded optometry suite, medical exam rooms and a meeting space, according to a recent news posting.

To make room during the renovation and clinical expansion — which are slated to be complete by year’s end — Neighborhood Health has consolidated its call center and administrative offices at Huntwood Plaza at 5845 Richmond Highway. The call center will accommodate 25 staff members and currently handles over 21,000 calls per week, according to data from the healthcare provider.

Neighborhood Health's call center staff at their new space at Huntwood Plaza (Credit: Neighborhood Health)

Meanwhile, the Neighborhood Health location at the Gerry Hyland Government Center in South County has begun operating its dental clinic. The location also provides adult family medicine and women’s health care.

Neighborhood Health’s Sherwood Hall location, which is focused on pediatric health and won a $25,000 prize in a national pediatric health challenge in January 2022, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

Overall, the organization has grown to serve over 35,000 patients across all its sites in Northern Virginia, said Khan. That’s up from 21,000 patients served in 2018. Most of those patients are low-income, immigrant, uninsured or underinsured, and people of color.

“The Route 1 corridor has been a significant focus of our organization, and one reason is because we look at need around the area,” said Khan. “It’s been gratifying at this point to see that we’ve been able to provide service to so many patients."

Over the past few years, Neighborhood Health has been active in getting Richmond Highway area residents vaccinated against COVID-19. The organization continues to hold free walk-in clinics at its medical facilities and to work with community partners in holding mobile clinics around the corridor. 

Neighborhood Health recently held a vaccination clinic at Hybla Valley Community Center. (Credit: Neighborhood Health)

Now that the public health emergency is ending and Virginia Medicaid is returning to normal enrollment processes, patients on Medicaid need to make sure their addresses are updated with the state, advised Khan.

“Everyone on Medicaid will have to go through the redetermination process over the next 12 months, and we anticipate there will be lots of people who lose Medicaid temporarily or for the longer term,” said Khan. “Obviously that has impacts on patients in terms of accessing different services. We serve them regardless of whether they have health insurance,” he added.