When FFC first got started in the late 1960s, our clients turned to us primarily for the treatment of acute health conditions. Things have certainly changed. Today, the number of medical clinic visits for chronic health conditions—such as hypertension, diabetes, and depression—outnumber medical clinic visits for acute health conditions by nearly 2 to 1.

You can imagine the impact that this has had on FFC. People with chronic health care needs require more medical resources in general—and, more specifically, greater attention to the management of their conditions and the coordination of their treatment. Counseling and careful monitoring are every bit as important as diagnosis and treatment with medications.

In order to better respond to the shift in our patient demographic and our patients’ needs, FFC—with support from the Virginia Health Care Foundation—hired its first full-time medical professional, a nurse practitioner, in 2007. Today, our Nurse Practitioner Project allows us to provide and coordinate care for more than 1,000 chronically-ill patients each year.