EXPANDING
HEALTH CARE
COVERAGE
Lone Star Family Health Center on more than 40 years of community commitment and care
By Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller
Since 1979, Lone Star Family Health Center (LSFHC) has strived to strengthen, stabilize and expand patient access to healthcare services in Montgomery County.
What began in 1979 as Family Medicine Residency Program in Conroe, joined in partnership with Conroe Medical Education Foundation and Conroe Hospital under the name Lone Star Family Health Center.
In 2004, LSFHC became a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), a nonprofit organization which exists to provide comprehensive health care services to underserved communities. Since then, officials have expanded into Spring, Willis and Grangerland with satellite offices. The Huntsville location opened in November 2020. In 2022, LSFHC celebrates 20 years of service in Montgomery County.
“FQHCs offer a sliding-fee scale to individuals living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), are governed by a patient-majority volunteer board of directors, and accept patients with public health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP),” explained Karen Harwell, Lone Star Family Health Center’s CEO. “FQHCs receive a flat amount of grant funding from a division of HHS called HRSA (the Health Services & Resources Administration).”
Those grant dollars, Harwell said, are used to subsidize (or slide) care to individuals considered “low-income” (defined as living at or below 200% of the FPL). This allows individuals, insured or uninsured, to receive sliding-fee discounts.
Family medicine residency
The Conroe Family Medicine Residency (CFMR) program is part of the LSFHC. It is a fully-accredited, three-year medical residency with commendation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
The program began in 1979 as the Montgomery County Medical Education Foundation by a team of physicians who set out to establish a family medicine residency program in the local area. The first three residents graduated in June 1985.
From 1983 to 1994, CFMR partnered with the University of Texas Health Science Center; and from 1994 to 2000, it partnered with the University of Texas Medical Branch.
In 2000, Conroe Medical Education Foundation, or CMEF, was formed to keep the residency program running in Montgomery County with support from Conroe Regional Medical Center (now HCA Conroe).
Lone Star Family Health Center (LSFHC) was formed in 2002 to serve as the outpatient (clinical) training site as well as oversee all program administration duties of the program.
Harwell said today, CMEF, HCA Conroe, LSFHC, and dozens of private specialty physicians continue to collaborate and keep the program recognized as one of the best in the country.
In July 2022, 12 new resident physicians will join the residency program, bringing the total number of trainees up to 32 for the upcoming academic year: 12 first-year, 10 second-year, and 10 third-year residents.
“Our resident physicians receive full-spectrum ‘hands-on’ training in a congenial and collegial environment and learn to deliver cost-effective treatment while integrating the most advanced concepts in the medical field,” Harwell said. “Training the next generation of primary care physicians in a diverse community like Montgomery County with a focus on care for the underserved plays a large role in maintaining a strong healthcare workforce for future generations.”
CFMR recruits medical students from across the U.S. Harwell said the program typically receives more than 1,000 applications each year to fill the 12 open spots.
“Our goal is to train physicians with a desire to continue working with underserved and rural populations and remain local or in Texas after graduation,” Harwell said. “For this reason, we recruit heavily across Texas medical schools or look for national candidates with a tie to Texas.”
More about the
Conroe location
Open since 2002, Harwell said the Conroe location serves a few key purposes, including the proximity to the hospital to work with hospitalized patients, and being a short commute for resident physicians training daily at HCA Conroe.
“Conroe has a very high population living at or below 200% FPL, therefore eligible for our sliding-fee discounts,” Harwell said. “It’s also the county seat, which provides for centralized access to our comprehensive services that may not be available at a particular satellite clinic location.”
The Conroe location offers everything from family medicine and women’s health, as well as dental, behavioral health, in-house pharmacy, labs, imaging, medication therapy and nutrition.
The Conroe facility has 173 employees including 63 medical providers; 34 office staff members; 31 administrative staff and 45 other medical-related employees.
Harwell said officials hope people find a “nice, clean, safe facility” where they receive “compassionate care from staff that treat everyone with dignity and respect, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay,” when they come to LSFHC.
“We collaborate with many local agencies and nonprofit organizations that target a similar population that we aim to serve,” Harwell said. “We have a community outreach team of five staff members who work alongside partners to help introduce people to our services/locations, offer health education, and connect individuals and families to our financial assistance programs. This takes place with health fairs, screening events, community listening sessions, and other specialized programming.”
Expanding into Willis
This summer, LSFHC officials are taking over the former Verizon Wireless space adjacent to the existing clinic. Harwell said this will allow them to add two to three additional exam rooms, a behavioral health counseling area, and private space for processing sliding-fee applications with an eligibility team member.
“We moved to Willis in 2016 with an HHS grant specifically offered to open new sites in areas of high need,” Harwell said. “To remain within 10-15 miles of our central location in Conroe, we studied the need for primary care services in Willis, East Montgomery County and Magnolia.
“Willis not only had a high level of need, but also offered great access to I-45, making the clinic accessible to surrounding communities of New Waverly, Huntsville, Coldspring, etc., where patients were already driving 50-plus miles to see us in Conroe.”
The Willis location provides clients with family medicine options, behavioral health care and lab services.
When the expansion is complete, it will include a staff of 10: three providers, one counselor and six support staff members.
For more information, call 936-539-4004 or visit www.lonestarfamily.org. Social media options include: Facebook @LoneStarFamilyHealthCenter; Instagram @lonestarfamilyhealth; Twitter @LoneStarHealth; and YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UCJd3QHVsCQhuH_o3zRFAQGA
The Conroe facility is the largest, most centrally located LSFHC location with most services offered under its roof. It’s open from 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturdays.
