St. Croix Regional Family Health Center is a small, community-based Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving the rural towns of Princeton and Calais in Washington County, Maine. Our patients often travel 20 to 30 minutes—sometimes longer—to access care. We are a vital access point for primary care, mental health, chiropractic, and most recently, optometry services in a region where specialty care is largely unavailable without a two-hour trip to Bangor, assuming good weather.
Our health center relies heavily on the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and Nurse Corps loan repayment programs to recruit and retain providers. Several of our current clinicians are receiving support through these programs, which are essential to sustaining access to care in our area.
Washington County has the highest prevalence of diabetes in Maine, a chronic disease that must be primarily managed in the primary care setting due to the lack of local specialists. Our ability to deliver accessible care close to home makes an enormous difference in preventing unnecessary complications and hospitalizations.
The decision to add optometry services came after a local patient was unable to find emergency eye care even in Bangor and had to travel nearly three hours to Palmyra. Before this addition, Washington County had only one optometrist for the entire population. Our new optometry service is already helping close a critical gap in care with 376 patients scheduled for appointments within the first two weeks of the service line being announced.
Additionally, Washington County has no public transportation system. Many residents lack personal vehicles and must rely on neighbors or family to get to medical appointments. According to data from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, large wildlife outnumbers people in this sparsely populated region—highlighting both the geographic isolation and the unique challenges our patients face in accessing basic healthcare services.
Tell Us Your Health Center’s NHSC Impact Story
Help us emphasize to Congress the impact of the NHSC on the lives of individuals and families living in medically underserved communities. Please share with us how important the NHSC is to your health center by emailing us. We need your help informing Congress how vital the NHSC is for providing healthcare access to their constituents!
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