For 4th Year Straight, Malta Earns Top Honors from NAFC

For the fourth year in a row, Malta has earned the highest-possible honors for its standards of care from a pre-eminent national group.

The National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC), a highly respected trade organization that represents about 1,400 charitable clinics nationwide, awarded Malta the NAFC 2023 Standards Gold Rating for its quality-of-care standards.

The mission of the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics is to ensure the medically underserved have access to affordable healthcare. The NAFC and our members are dedicated to ensuring that our patients receive quality healthcare. Therefore, to quantify and qualify the care provided at the Free and Charitable Clinic network, the NAFC formalized a set of Quality Standards for member organizations.
 
Its quality standards include policies and procedures related to:

  • Planning and managing care;
  • Tracking and coordinating care;
  • Identifying and managing patient information;
  • Measuring and improving performance
  • Enhanced access and continuity of care;
  • Providing self-care support and community resources; and
  • Administration

We are so proud to be recognized with this esteemed honor.

Learn more about Malta’s past honors here.

Vaccine Clinic – Thursday, January 19th

Malta House of Care is proud to partner with the Hartford Department of Health and Human Services and their Get Vaxxed program to offer a Vaccine Clinic at two locations on Thursday, January 19th. Covid-19 Vaccines, Boosters, and Flu Vaccines will be available while supplies last. No appointment needed. Vaccines for ages 5+

10am – 11:30am
Malta Clinic
136 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT

12:30pm-2pm
St Augustine Church
10 Campfield Avenue, Hartford, CT

For more information call 860.757.4700, option 3

NEW Patient Registration Hours Now Available

New Patient Registration
Tuesday through Friday | 9am-11am
Malta House of Care Clinic
136 Farmington Avenue, Hartford

To become a patient at Malta House, you must meet three criteria:

  • Age 18 or older
  • No insurance 
  • Bring photo ID

We will be open for new patient registration only Tuesday through Friday mornings from 9am-11am at Malta’s Clinic at 136 Farmington Avenue. New patients will have the opportunity to fill out paperwork/forms prior to scheduling a provider visit to help minimize crowds during their scheduled patient visit. We look forward to meeting you soon!

New patients or those requiring same-day care are asked to first call the office at 860.725.0171. If you speak a language other than English, Spanish, or Portuguese, please bring an English-speaking friend or family member to act as an interpreter.

Click here to download the flyer!

WFSB Channel 3 covers Opening Event, includes words from Chairman Brian Sheehan

New community in Hartford to provide health care and food

By Ayah Galal and Evan Sobol
Published: Sep. 21, 2022 at 6:55 PM EDT

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – A new cathedral community center has opened its doors in Hartford.

It’s going to help more people in the capital city get access to healthcare and food.

This will help more people who don’t have health insurance and are food insecure.

Malta House has been serving the community with mobile vans for years.

Now that they have an actual building, they can more than double the patients they see.

“The Malta House project really gets to the heart of our mission. Our very essence which is working collaboratively and joining in projects that make life better for the poor and needy and the vulnerable,” said James Smith, General Chair of The Hartford Bishops’ Foundation.

The building will serve as the new permanent location for the Malta House of Care clinic and the Cathedral Food Pantry.

It’s located in the shadow of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph on its Farmington Avenue campus.

New patient rooms mean enhanced quality of care.

“We aim to be a valued and helpful contributor for the betterment of our communities and for the fulfillment of our mission,” said James.

The state-of-the-art outpatient clinic will allow Malta House to expand its services beyond Greater Hartford.

Since 2006, Malta House has provided over 70,000 free patient visits to uninsured people from 51 countries.

Services are free to people of all faiths.

“It’s an organization that was born right here in the city of Hartford to address health disparities in our community by serving the underserved and providing free primary care services to uninsured adults,” said Brian Sheehan, Chairman of Malta House of Care.

The new cathedral food pantry will allow expanded hours as well as food delivery to the homebound.

“As many struggle to survive the painful reality that was imposed on our society first by the pandemic and now by escalating inflation and unforeseen financial challenges. The food pantry is indeed a lifeline for our sisters and brothers in need,” said Leonard P. Blair, Archbishop of Hartford.

The center is a $6.8 million project made possible with the help of grants and donors.

No local, federal or state funds were used on this project.

Copyright 2022 WFSB. All rights reserved.

 

Watch and read the original here.

Fox 61 covers Clinic Opening, includes Vicki Veltri interview

$8M privately funded food pantry, primary care center comes to Hartford

“The heart of charity in the center of Hartford,” said Archbishop Leonard Blair.

Author: Jim Altman
Fox 61
Published: 6:49 PM EDT September 20, 2022
Updated: 7:09 PM EDT September 20, 2022

HARTFORD, Conn. — The exterior of an old red brick building on Farmington Avenue in Hartford looks largely as it has for decades – it’s the inside that has been completely changed.

The Archdiocese of Hartford, The Hartford Bishops’ Foundation and The Malta House of Care celebrated Tuesday the opening of a collaborative project, The Cathedral Community Center.

Six years in the making and an estimated $8 million raised in private funds, the new center will provide the people of Greater Hartford two benefits: access to primary care and a food pantry.

“It’s brought together to offer people one location where they can get their health care when they need it,” said Vicki Veltri, the executive director of the Malta House of Care. “They can get access to food, many of our patients are food insecure.”

Archbishop Leonard Blair was proudly walking the grounds outside the Cathedral Community Center, which sits right next to the Cathedral of Saint Joseph on Farmington Avenue.

“This is the heart of charity here in the center of Hartford,” Blair said, and added, “It’s a wonderful day.”

The funds raised for the Cathedral Community Center came from private and corporate donors – no state or federal funds were used.

The Malta House of Care, which is known for providing mobile vans that offer health care in the Hartford area, will continue the mission but now there is a dedicated state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar clinic to tend to patients.

“This will enable them [The Malta House] to increase by two and a half times the number of people they’re able to serve here,” Blair said.

“This is our mission – to get people comprehensive primary care and the fact that we can open our doors on this day is really gratifying,” Veltri added, standing by the front doors of the health clinic.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the Cathedral Community Center was held Tuesday with staff and supporters cheering the accomplishment.

 

Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News.

 

Watch and read the original piece here.

New space featured in Hartford Courant

Hartford Cathedral Center opening new space for free health care, food pantry, ‘ a remarkable transformation’

By Ed Stannard
Hartford Courant
Sep 19, 2022 at 3:38 pm

The Malta House of Care, whose van has offered primary health care to residents of Hartford and East Hartford since 2006, will begin welcoming its clients to a new, renovated, state-of-the-art site on the campus of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford on Tuesday.

The Cathedral Community Center also will offer expanded space for the cathedral’s food pantry, which has already served more meals in 2022 than in all of 2021, according to Archbishop Leonard Blair.

Housed in a former church hall, the center has been “gutted, renovated and brought up to standard” to provide comprehensive primary care to the low-income population in the Asylum Hill neighborhood, said Vicki Veltri, executive director of Malta House, on Monday. Until now, Malta House has offered care primarily through its medical van, which serves patients at the cathedral as well as at two sites in Hartford and East Hartford, she said.

Blair said that since 2006, 70,000 free visits by uninsured clients have been served by Malta House. The new site is “just a remarkable transformation that’s been made possible through the generosity of many people,” he said.

“You need to try to get people where they are,” Veltri said. “People have limited ability for transportation. … So I think the location is going to serve the Asylum Hill neighborhood, which is the predominant neighborhood that we serve, very, very well. But it opens up the van to go to other places.”

The clinic “offers comprehensive primary care services and, I will say, longitudinal too, because we have patients that have stayed with us for a long time,” Veltri said. “Providers have been committed for a long time. So we operate with a small staff, but we also have the good fortune of having about 40 volunteers who also work with us to provide this care to our community.”

The volunteers include doctors, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, among others.

The Cathedral Community Center, which will house Malta House of Care and the cathedral food pantry, opens Sept. 20, 2022. 
(Aaron Joseph)

“It’s a tremendous group of people, very committed to helping people who cannot get coverage any other way,” Veltri said. “We’re looking at a population that cannot qualify for Medicaid or other coverage because either their status as immigrants or they don’t qualify for another reason for insurance coverage.”

Most patients are “very low income,” Veltri said, and represent about 30 languages and more than 50 countries of origin. There are Spanish and Portuguese translators on staff, “and I’m going to work on that as well, because we have a pretty large contingent of Portuguese-speaking patients” from Brazil and Portugal who make up a significant community in Hartford, she said.

Malta House also has been serving patients from Ghana at its East Hartford van stop on Mondays at St. Rose Roman Catholic Church, 33 Church St. The van also goes to St. Augustine’s Church, 10 Campfield Ave., Hartford, on Thursdays.

At other times, patients have been screened in the cathedral’s basement and then brought to the van for care.

Veltri said Malta House also had used a site on Woodland Street occasionally, “but it was smaller than our needs. We needed more space. And we needed to modernize it.”

The center has five exam rooms and private intake areas and is “much more, I think, amenable to our patients, who I think will see it as a beautiful site for them to come to for their health care,” Veltri said. Also, the new site “kind of frees us up a little bit to get some more neighborhoods with our van,” she said.

The center will also offer OB/GYN services, COVID-19 and flu clinics, behavioral health care and specialty days for dental, vision and cardiology care.

The Cathedral Community Center, which will house Malta House of Care and the cathedral food pantry, opens Sept. 20, 2022.
(Aaron Joseph)

Malta House is run under the auspices of the Order of Malta, a lay Catholic order that offers care to the poor, Blair said. ” I think we offer a unique service and we’ve been around for a long time and we want to continue doing it and this clinic just helps us expand it,” Veltri said.

The food pantry, run by members of the cathedral parish, also will be able to serve more of those in need, Blair said.

“In 2022 alone, over 11,000 people from the Greater Hartford area were served at the cathedral food pantry, and there are more families and individuals in the first eight months of 2022 than in all of 2021,” he said.

He said the pantry will be able to expand its hours and be able to offer blood pressure screenings, nutrition counseling and ease food delivery to the homebound.

“The food pantry also helps people moving from homelessness or shelters to apartments, including women coming from domestic abuse shelters, and men and women coming out of incarceration,” Blair said. “Those things also wind up coming under the sights of the food pantry. … And they also give non-food items like personal hygiene things, diapers, clothing, housewares.”

Blair said 41 tons of food have been received from Connecticut Foodshare over the years. “So having this greatly enhanced food pantry at the cathedral will be a tremendous boon to the charity and fellowship that we want to extend to the local community,” he said.

“I don’t think people are aware, even our Catholic people or the wider community, of just how much service is extended through the Cathedral of St. Joseph,” he said. “And this new facility, thanks to the generosity of many people, is going to make it even greater.”

 

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com

 

Read the full article here.

Upcoming Free Flu Vaccine Clinics — Fall 2022

Malta is excited to once again be partnering with Optum to provide Malta patients (and anyone else who is uninsured or under-insured) FREE Flu Vaccines this fall!

Clinics are scheduled for:

Wednesday, September 21st
10am-2pm
Malta House of Care Clinic
136 Farmington Avenue, Hartford

Thursday, September 29th
12pm-3:30pm
St. Augustine Church
10 Campfield Avenue, Hartford

Monday, October 3rd
10am-2pm
St. Rose Church
33 Church Street, East Hartford

Call us at 860-725-0171 or visit the clinic to sign up!


Information from Optum Care about the Flu Shot and Covid 19 from their website.

An Optum Care patient asks her doctor if she needs to get a flu shot this year. She’s still staying away from public places because of COVID-19. Learn why this year it’s so important to get your flu shot.

Question:

I hate shots. I heard that the flu shot doesn’t always keep you from getting flu. I also don’t want to go out in public if I don’t have to. Should I get the flu shot this year?

Answer:

Some people are ready to go out in public again. Others still work from home and don’t want to visit a clinic or pharmacy to get a flu shot.

Ask your local Optum clinic about how you can get your flu shot this year. Clinics follow strict rules for social distancing and cleaning. But they may also offer other safe ways to get your flu shot.

We’re always looking for other safe ways to give flu shots. We’re working with experts from:

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • State and local health departments

But this year, like every year, it’s important to get your flu shot any way you can. It won’t keep you safe from COVID-19. But it can lower your chances of getting the flu.

And if you still get the flu, a flu shot can help your body fight the illness so you don’t need hospital care. It could even safe your life.

We also suggest you get a flu shot and a COVID-19 vaccine. Neither shot will keep you safe from the other illness.

The CDC recommends getting a flu shot before viruses start spreading in your community this fall. Plan ahead, because it takes about two weeks after getting the shot for antibodies to develop. The antibodies help protect you from getting the flu.

Everyone 6 months of age and older, except those with some illnesses, should get a flu shot every year. To learn how to get your flu shot, call your doctor’s office.

In health,
Efrem Castillo, MD
Senior Medical Director, Optum