Lamprey launches Nashua services at new facility

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Michael Cleveland photo Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau cuts the ribbon officially opening Lamprey Health Care's new building at 22 Prospect St., Nashua, on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2011. With her are, from left, Ann Peters, Lamprey's executive director; Mariellen Durso, director of the Nashua center, and Elizabeth Crepeau, president of the board of directors.

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NASHUA – With the snip of a pair of ordinary scissors, Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau opened Lamprey Health Care’s Nashua Center, a facility that will offer more efficient access to people from the Milford area who need medical care but might not have insurance.

The new facility, at 22 Prospect. St., is a $4.7 million project that gives the community health center – one of three Lamprey has in the state – its own building in Nashua, just down the street from Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, where Lamprey had operated prior to getting the new place.

There, it will continue its mission, described by Executive Director Ann Peters as helping the indigent and the uninsured by offering a sliding fee scale that can be as low as $15.

“It seems like a dream come true,” Peters said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the new building Nov. 30, before a crowd of about 40 people that included some local officials and members of Lamprey staff.

Elizabeth Crepeau, president of Lamprey’s board of directors, referred to Lamprey as a “mission-driven organization” that helps people regardless of their ability to pay and has a “comment to access for those who seek care.”

The new facility, she said, will expand access to health services by providing an additional 7,500 square feet of space, including exam rooms that will grow from 14 to 21 once the second floor of the building is fully operational. Right now, only the first floor is being used for patients as Lamprey continues efforts to raise the final $470,000 it needs to outfit the building completely.

Peters said last week that the Community Development Finance Authority had granted Lamprey $375,000 in tax credits, meaning that local businesses that donate to the fundraising effort would receive a state tax credit for 75 percent of their contributions.

“The goal is to occupy the second floor as soon as we raise the remaining funds to finish outfitting it,” Peters said.

Meanwhile, Lamprey still will be able to deal with more patients in the new facility than it could in the space it rented from Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. The Nashua center currently deals with more than 5,400 patients a year, a number that is growing by about 75 a month.

To Steve Densberger, the vice chairman of Lamprey’s board of directors, the new facility is “a wonderful asset to the community.”

“This facility, this staff, this organization provides a wonderful opportunity for people coming here looking for the American dream to have health care,” he said during the ceremony.

While Lamprey provides primary care services in its facilities in Nashua, Newmarket and Raymond, it also offers such things as substance abuse counseling, diabetes education, nutrition counseling, OB/GYN care, behavioral health services, health education and care coordination.

The new building will allow it to serve an additional 3,500 patients over the next three to five years, according to Mariellen Durso, the director of the Nashua site.

At a recent meeting of the Milford Rotary Club, Durso explained that the number of uninsured people Lamprey sees has grown from 58 to 63 in the past few months.

“We’re seeing more and more people that we call ‘newly facing poverty, newly facing not having insurance,’ because they’ve lost their jobs,” she said.

Indeed, Lamprey’s Nashua center has seen a 27 percent increase in demand for services since 2008, many of them from the Milford area.