Cempa Community Care continues to evolve making easy access to primary care and preventative care a priority.
“We have grown,” Cempa Director of Clinical Services Amy Eldridge said. “In 2019 Cempa became a FQHC (Federally Qualified Healthcare Center) look-alike which expanded our growth. We have our own pharmacy. We have Cempa Dental, the mobile clinic, a walk-in care clinic on Rossville Blvd., a behavioral health department, and a food market.”
Cempa patients can be treated without fragmentation of care.
“We are able to help the patient…without having to go to two or three different places,” Eldridge said. “We are all part of the same team so as a patient you have the advantage of the same cohesive care team advocating for you, treating you and looking out for you.”
Cempa Community Care is open to everyone, including those who are under or uninsured.
“We accept insurance plans, and we also have, for the uninsured, a discount program application,” Eldridge said. The Cempa team helps clients get the necessary documentation required. The co-payments are affordable, and payment plans are offered if needed.
“Our goal is to always make sure that a patient is seen,” she said.
“We Do Care,” continues to expand, but Eldridge said Cempa Community Care also maintains its focus on their origin story - infectious diseases.
“Our roots are in infectious diseases,” she said. “We have a leading team of infectious disease providers. We realized and are very passionate about the fact that sexual health is a part of someone’s overall physical health. And it is a part of the conversation, whether someone is coming in for primary care, or whether they are coming in just for PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). Having those conversations about sexual health is empowering those individuals.”
PrEP has been the latest topic of conversation, one in which Eldridge said the team is elated to educate the community about.
“Same day PrEP is an exciting new addition,” she said. “If someone is coming in or calling us about getting on PrEP, we want to make that as seamless as possible. And we have.”
Mario Forte is the Biomedical HIV Prevention Specialist at Cempa Community Care. He explained how PrEP is a preventative measure for sexually active individuals who are at risk of contracting HIV.
It is no different than getting the flu shot or COVID vaccine.
He said it’s for anyone who is sexually active, might have anxiety or fear on contracting HIV, or might have multiple sexual partners, or don’t know the status of their partner.
Cempa has provided rapid HIV and Hep-C testing for several years. The results take 20 minutes. If a patient tests negative for HIV they can be provided with a sample of PrEP medication and begin preventative care immediately.
“PrEP can be a daily pill, but it can also be an injection every two months,” Forte explained.
But getting PrEP at a regular physician’s office is not easy.
“One of the requirements to be on PrEP is that you have to have a prescription,” Forte said.
Under normal circumstances a patient would first visit their PCP. But Forte said most PCP don’t have the time to talk about sexual health or don’t feel comfortable doing so.
He said, more than likely, the patient would be referred to an infectious disease specialist for an HIV test. That test would be sent to a laboratory where the results could take a few days or weeks. If the test is negative the patient is then provided with a prescription for PrEP.
“Then they have to figure out how to pay for it if the pharmacy is not familiar with the protocol, because it should be free for everybody, but the medicine is really expensive, if the right codes aren’t entered,” he said. “So, all of these little steps are barriers and sometimes people just give up on the process, because it could take months.”
Since Cempa Community Care offers same day test results and has an in-house pharmacy patients can be provided with PrEP in one visit.
“We’ve broken down all those barriers,” Forte said adding it took Cempa a long time to be able to put all the protocols and procedures in place.
PrEP allows the client to plan their own preventative measure.
“PrEP can also be what I call on demand or intermittent,” he said. “If you are sexually active with multiple partners you may want to be on PrEP. But if you get into a relationship and you and your partner are exclusive and both negative, you may decide that you can stop taking PrEP. But you could pick right back up again anytime. It can be seasonal, for example you may not be sexually active when you are here, but when you go on vacation you might be, so you can start on PrEP the week before you go on vacation. It doesn’t mean that you are on PrEP for the rest of your life. It means that you can make your own judgements about your sexual health. Informed judgement.”
“And that is our goal here at Cempa is to empower our patients in all aspects of their lives,” Eldridge added. “Empowering them within their own sexual health and their own sexual identity to where they feel they are protected and supported.”
“Individuals living with HIV can achieve viral suppression within three weeks of taking the medication,” Forte said. “Someone with a recent diagnosis could be undetectable within three weeks. Undetectable means that under a normal HIV test, they would test negative.”
If an individual is undetectable, it also means they will not transmit the virus to others.
Should a client receive a positive HIV result, Eldridge said they have a plan for that as well.
“If the test comes back positive, we have one pill that is taken one a day,” she said. “HIV is no longer a terminal diagnosis. We have a plan, and we are going to care for that patient regardless of the results. If the test is positive, we link them immediately into care.”
Seeking services at Cempa Community Care is as easy as picking up the phone and calling their main number at 423-265-2273. Eldridge said their phone specialists will direct the patient to the correct services and assist with the new patient paperwork.
For more information visit: cempa.org
The link to more information on PrEP is here: cempa.org/prep-pep-services/