CHD Now Offers Primary Care at Three of Its Outpatient Clinics

Dr. Chad McDonald

Responding to a deficit in primary care providers in the region, CHD recently introduced a new service line: CHD Primary Care at its outpatient behavioral health clinics in West Springfield, Easthampton, and Orange.

This program integrates medical care, nursing case management, and behavioral health services under one umbrella. From preventive visits and routine checkups to managing chronic conditions, CHD Primary Care makes it easier for people to get the personalized, ongoing care they need close to home and without waiting.

CHD Primary Care services:

  • Minor illness: coughs, cold, flu, ear and eye pain, sore throat, rash
  • Minor injuries, including burns, sprains, bumps and bruises
  • Chronic disease management, including asthma, diabetes, COPD, and high blood pressure
  • Diagnostic services: on-site rapid testing, orders for off-site lab and radiology available
  • Medication refills
  • Referrals to specialists, as well as bridge treatments
  • Convenient access to behavioral health care at CHD
Dr. Ryan Alvares

“The patients that come here tell me that they’ve been trying to find primary care and they have to wait six months or even 12 months, so it feels good to tell them they don’t have to wait nearly that long with us,” said Dr. Chad McDonald, D.O., the CHD Chief of Medicine who has been seeing patients at the Park Street Primary Care Clinic in West Springfield.

Moreover, housing primary care and behavioral health services in one setting supports a team-based approach to care delivery and treats the whole person, looking at both physical and mental needs—rather than separating both types of care into two different systems. This allows medical and behavioral health providers to collaborate easily and in the same location.

“If I’m seeing a patient for diabetes, and I see what may be a mental health issue, I can get them an appointment with a mental health clinician, who I can immediately consult with, so a smaller issue can get taken care of before it becomes a big issue,” he said.

On the other side of the coin, someone with a psychiatric or mental health condition might come to see a CHD behavioral health clinician or psychiatrist but have a medical issue that has never been addressed. That is the basis for CHD’s reverse-integration model: traditionally, integrating primary care and behavioral health services has involved bringing behavioral health clinicians into a primary care practice, but CHD is doing a reverse integration in that it has brought the primary care practice fully into three behavioral health clinics.

“A standard primary care office doesn’t have all the tools that CHD has in its toolbox,” said Dr. McDonald, who is a family physician and an addiction medicine specialist. “This is important because our mental health and physical health are very intimately connected. If you’re ignoring one, then the other is likely going to struggle too, and several studies have shown that patients with psychiatric illness live 10 to 20 years less than patients who don’t struggle with those ailments.”

To be sure, Dr. McDonald’s board certification in addiction medicine is particularly useful in increasing health care access to the population he serves. “If you’re not taking care of your mental health, and you have a major medical problem, you’re going to ignore those physical health concerns—and when you add in substance use, that further complicates things,” he said. “With many people, there are all three problems—medical, psychological, and social service needs—that need attention, and CHD is in a position to treat all three.”

APRN Sarah Moquin

CHD Chief of Psychiatry Dr. Ryan Alvares agrees. “Obviously, when mental illness and addiction are co-occurring, they tend to take over, and that person tends to make physical health less of a priority, so it suffers significantly due to the deep connection between the mind and the body,” he said.

Dr. Alvares is enthusiastic about providing whole-person care to patients, helping to fulfill CHD’s mission of providing a broad range of community-oriented services. “I feel great about telling them they don’t have to wait a year to see someone, and we’re all going to be able to work together,” he said. “It’s a huge benefit.”

Being part of an innovative reverse-integrated primary care approach is also exciting for Sarah Moquin, an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), who is new at CHD and works at our Easthampton Outpatient Clinic—especially because the shortage of primary care physicians in the area is prompting people to visit urgent care and hospital emergency rooms for their medical needs too often, and this kind of treatment doesn’t typically include consistent follow-up care.

She recalled one CHD patient in his late 40s who hadn’t been to a primary care provider in 20 years. “He only came to us because he recently had a heart attack,” she said. “It turned out he also had diabetes, high cholesterol, and occluded coronary arteries. In my career, I’ve worked in urgent care; I’ve worked in the ER; and I see how folks overutilize these services when they should be seeing a primary care physician, but they don’t have one. So anything we can do to overcome barriers to accessing primary care is essential in maintaining people’s best health.”

For information about CHD programs, services, and more, call 1-844-CHD-HELP.

CHD West Springfield Clinic: 246 Park Street, West Springfield, MA, 1-413-737-4718

CHD Easthampton Clinic: 65 Union Street, Easthampton, MA, 1-413-529-1764

CHD Orange Clinic: 30 East Main Street, Orange, MA, 1-978-544-2148