Penn Dental Medicine Expands Community Presence at Spectrum Community Health Center
Philadelphia — Penn Dental Medicine and Spectrum Health Services, Inc. have established a partnership that is enhancing oral health care services for community members in West Philadelphia. Launched this summer, dental school faculty and students are now providing comprehensive dental care to patients within Spectrum Community Health Center at 5201 Haverford Ave.
“We are so pleased to be partnering with Penn Dental Medicine, one of the premier dental schools in the country, to ensure oral care remains accessible to our clients,” says Veronica Hill-Milbourne, President and CEO of Spectrum Health Services, Inc.
As a federally qualified health center (FQHC), Spectrum offers an array of integrated health services for all ages, taking into account the complexity of medical and social/economic issues of their patients. Through this partnership, Penn Dental Medicine is now providing the dental care services at the center, expanding its community-based care sites within Philadelphia.
The Spectrum dental care center, features a dental operatory with eight dental chairs where dental students and faculty from Penn Dental Medicine are providing comprehensive dental care, including examination, diagnosis, preventive, and restorative dental services. Dental appointments are available five days a week with support for patients needing more complex care at Penn Dental Medicine’s dental care centers at 40th and Spruce Streets.
“It is an increasingly significant part of the mission of Penn Dental Medicine to offer high-quality dental care to patients in the community where they live, removing what can be a key barrier to care – transportation to a dental office outside their neighborhood” says Dr. Mark Wolff, Morton Amsterdam Dean of Penn Dental Medicine. “In addition, our students learn so much about their patients as individuals by meeting them where they live.”
With the addition of Spectrum, Penn Dental Medicine now has four community-based locations in addition to its PennSmiles mobile care center. The other sites include Mercy LIFE (4508 Chestnut St.), Bernett L. Johnson Sayre Health Center (5800 Walnut St.), and Puentes de Salud (1700 South St.)
“The Spectrum center is run in a private-practice format with ten students each day seeing a full schedule of patients,” says Dr. Leonard Jensen, Dental Director of Community Dental Care Centers at Penn Dental Medicine and the faculty dentist at Spectrum. “Community residents are deeply appreciative of our presence here.”
Spectrum Health Services, Inc. has been serving the community since 1967 and in addition to the center in West Philadelphia has two other locations – the Reed Street Health Center, 1325 S. 33rd Street; and Broad Street Health Center, 1415 North Broad Street.