Middletown-based Community Health Center said it’s opened a Denver, Colo., office for its Weitzman Institute, which is CHC’s first physical location outside Connecticut.
CHC said the Denver office will better connect institute staff to its customers and programs in 37 states.
Separately, CHC announced that a training program for medical assistants that it helped develop, the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA), has hired Naveen Kanithi as its first CEO.
Kanithi is working from Weitzman’s Denver office, which also will be the home of NIMAA’s national office.
CHC developed the program with Salud Family Health Centers of Colorado.
Weitzman’s new Denver office will be overseen by Matt Vinikas, who is chief operating officer of Community eConsult Network, which helps primary care providers receive electronic consultations from specialists for underserved patients and is among Weitzman’s myriad programs. The institute seeks primary care innovation for the underserved through research, training and consulting.
“This made sense to be here,” said CHC founder Mark Masselli, who was in Denver Wednesday for the office’s grand opening. “It’s one of the best airports to fly into.”
Masselli expects the Denver office to have 10 to 15 employees by year’s end.
Kanithi, who did a two-month orientation in Connecticut before heading to Denver, comes from the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association (NWRPCA), a nonprofit membership organization that serves community and migrant health centers in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state, where he was workforce development program manager.
CHC and Salud Family Health Centers in Colorado are both longtime NWRPCA partners in workforce development, NWRPCA CEO Bruce Gray said on the group’s website, adding that NWRPCA has been in dialogue with NIMAA since its inception and “we look forward to working with (Kanithi) and key NIMAA stakeholders on MA (medical assistant) training and development both regionally and nationally.”
Masselli said the NIMAA training program has resonated with students and employers for its affordability and model of training, which embeds students in primary care locations for seven months, including teaching them skills on models of care, delivery systems and leadership skills that are key to functions of healthcare practices, he said.
“Think about this as a seven-month job interview,” Masselli said of students and practices sizing each other up for potential hiring after graduation.
NIMAA is about to launch its third class with an estimated 130 students. The first two classes were eight and 36, he said. NIMAA will have a handful of staff in Denver to start, Masselli said.
NIMAA also plans to add special 12-hour courses for certified medical assistants looking for additional skills in interdisciplinary team-based care, use of data, care coordination, diabetes management and the like, Masselli said.
“We know that medical assistants are thirsty for this, as well as their employers,” he said.
Masselli said Denver won’t be the last office CHC opens outside Connecticut, but he declining to share any future plans.
He said Connecticut will remain the base from which CHC spreads its models nationwide.
“We are still growing in Connecticut,” he said.
