My Communities Healthcare Resources

When talking about healthcare lots of individuals will think of  access to doctors and medical care, however, there is a lot more that goes into an individual’s overall health. As a class we came up with a definition of health as the overall physical, emotional, and mental well-being and having the access to achieve this disregarding socio-economic status and background. In our definition we highlighted that health is more than just physical health. An individual’s overall health encompasses lots of factors such as their mental and emotional well-being, access to proper food resources, areas to exercise and many more that all intertwine together to define an individual’s health. In my prior post I talked about proper access to more essential resources like a grocery store or transportation; today I am going to talk about my community’s access to proper healthcare resources, in particular a local CapitalCare Practice and a local Eye doctor. 

CapitalCare Practice 

When diving into my community’s healthcare resources I was pleasantly surprised! To me the most important resource that is available is a CapitalCare Family Practice in Ravena. This practice has five different providers that are specialists in family medicine. They have a range of hours,open from 8am-8pm on some days and  8am-6pm on others. They are also open for appointments on Saturdays. CapitalCare in Ravena also has a practitioner on call after hours, which to me is a very helpful resource to use when there is an emergency after hours. I was curious to see what insurances were taken by CapitalCare and found that they take a wide range of insurances. They accept over 25 different insurances and for extra help they have an insurance guide that breaks down a lot of information that can be thrown at you by the insurance companies. CapitalCare also offers a resource called a Health Park. Health Parks are a centralized location that act as a one stop shop for any CapitalCare patient. Under one roof there are different types of specialties such as, primary care, specialty care, urgent care, and wellness services. Unfortunately, there is not a health park located in Ravena but there is a CapitalCare Health Park located in Delmar, NY which is around 20 minutes away from me. Therefore, with a proper source of transportation a Health Park is not that far away to receive all types of medical care. 

COVID-19 procedure for accessing CapitalCare

With COVID-19 having the effects on our world today, lots of daily tasks as we know them are being changed. Being in New York we now have to wear face masks everywhere we go, many businesses are shut down, but there are some essential businesses like doctors offices that need to stay open during this time. CapitalCare in Ravena is one of the doctors offices that are open during this time. They ask that if an individual is feeling ill to please call ahead of time to limit risk of exposure to other patients and their staff. They have stated that though they do not do walk in appointments, the physicians are still available in many different ways, such as by phone or telemedicine (by video). They state that telemedicine is a great resource to have during this time because it allows for a face to face video chat with a physician but also keeps everyone safe from infection. CapitalCare has also decided to waive any fees for telemedicine during this time in the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, our town supervisor is working with our county executive Dan McCoy to  get Ravena to be a testing site for COVID-19. 

SouthTowns Optical 

In my community there is access to an eye doctor office called Southtowns Optical. I have never been;however, I do have a few family members who go to this practice and absolutely love their care. Southtown optical is a small privately owned office located in Flaith Plaza in Ravena. With the practice being a small privately owned practice it was difficult finding information about the practice and with the current COVID-19 pandemic I was not able to go into the practice myself. However, I did have a family member that was willing to give me a small review on her experience at SouthTowns Optical.  

“I’ve been going to South Town Optical for the last twelve years to get my glasses frames. Tony Cornell is the owner and he is very helpful with helping individuals pick out their glasses and fitting them to when they come in. In the office they are racks with all different styles of frames and glasses according to the insurance you have. He is great at helping you pick out a pair of glasses that you love but also what will be the most beneficial financially. SouthTowns Optical also has a doctor who does eye exams if needed as well.” -Sofia Orsino 

My Thoughts

When exploring the access to healthcare resources that my community has I was happy to see that there were some resources such as a family practice and an eye doctor! However, one of my concerns is that there may be individuals that do not have insurance or their insurance is not accepted by these practices. If that is the case an individual would then need some sort of transportation to be able to get to proper healthcare resources. There are many resources in the city of Albany, which is located around 25-30 minutes from Ravena, that help individuals with no insurance access proper healthcare. Again, like stated in my previous blog post, with no transportation outlets like CDTA or even Uber it would be hard for someone to receive the proper health care they deserve. I believe that if we were able to get the CDTA or some other mode of transportation to stop here in Ravena and bring individuals to places like Albany it could have the potential to increase the overall health for some of the community members.