Mark Masselli and Community Health Center's Health Care Model

Working at a crisis center in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1972, Mark Masselli saw people whose only access to health care was the emergency room. He knew something had to be done.

So, Mark Masselli took things into his own hands. With a handful of others, Masselli started a free health clinic offering dental care which grew into a community-based healthcare system in Connecticut, and a model for serving health to the poor nationwide.

It opened inauspiciously in a second-floor walkup center in downtown Middletown; forty-five years later, the Community Health Center has grown into a major medical provider as well as dental service provider to 100,000 people a year at 14 primary and 200 secondary locations throughout Connecticut with budget that has grown to $100 million a year.

Back in the day in those early years, however, "You could have been in San Francisco," Mark Masselli said describing the early vibe, with beaded curtains separating the rooms.

Mark Masselli hasn’t strayed far. He grew up in Middletown, and graduated in 1969 from the city's Xavier High School. At 19, he began working for an anti-poverty organization.

His community based approach health care has gone beyond just the Main Street location, growing beyond Middletown and the state borders, creating cutting-edge programs from Rhode Island in the East to Hawaii in the West through its Weitzman Institute.

But it wasn’t an immediate or overnight success. Middletown medical establishment didn’t take to the clinic, and both local doctors and the local health authorities tried to shut down the Mark Masselli’s clinic.
A Key to expansion was the Weitzman Institute. Special programs Mark Masselli oversaw was access to specialized care for poor patients. One pioneering program was the “e-consult”, which allows primary care providers to send electronic patient information to specialists. This quickly determined if a patient office visit is necessary, which saves time and money for both the medical provider and the patient.

Others took notice. This eConsult Network has expanded to 24 specialties, becoming a model nationwide, creating 50 similar programs in other states, with another 50 being developed.

Other innovations coming out of the Institute and Mark Masselli’s CHC include a residency program for medical assistants and videos that educate medical professionals in management of chronic diseases like diabetes. Both ideas have caught on elsewhere, and Community Health now has contracts with similar organizations in 26 states, Masselli said.

Perhaps most importantly, Mark Masselli’s Community Health Center has never lost touch with its founding principal: serving the poorer patients. This commitment is even reflected in the makeup of its governing board, where patients occupy half the seats.