Open Door Health Center
Overview
Open Door Health Center is a non-profit community health center, providing quality, affordable health care to everyone!
At Community Health Centers (CHC), care starts with listening. We take time to get to know our patients – their lives, their needs, and their goals – and we build our care around that. As the largest primary care network in the country, CHCs are united by a shared commitment to care that’s grounded in relationships, shaped by trust, built on connection, and delivered by a national movement rooted in every community we serve.
The Open Door team has an unwavering commitment to improving the quality of life for our patients and within our community. We do this by providing integrated health care services, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. With our cooperative, team-based approach, Open Door providers offer quality medical, dental, and behavioral health care all in one place. Open Door also offers insurance enrollment and pharmacy services onsite at the main clinic in Mankato.
It’s all about increasing access to quality care. We do this by making it affordable. Most private insurance plans are accepted, as is Minnesota Care and Medical Assistance (MA). We also have a sliding fee discount system that helps individuals and families with no insurance and those with high deductible insurance pay based on income and household size.
Open Door Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Open Door Health Center receives HHS funding and is a Health Center Program grantee under 42 U.S.C 254b, and is deemed a Public Health Service employer under 42 U.S.C. 233 (g)-(n)
The History of Open Door Health Center
the evolution of quality affordable health care in Southern Minnesota
Open Door Health Center began as a free health program in Mankato. Incorporated as The Wellness Center in 1983, the project was founded to meet the needs of women and children with little access to healthcare.
Throughout the 1980s a growing number of concerned community members gathered to discuss unmet health needs in greater Mankato. The group included government representatives, educators, health care providers, and other community members.
In the early 1990s, the original founders (Dr. Bill Manahan, Carl Lofy, Ann Gainey, and Annette Mcbeth) had gathered an impressive number of supporters. In 1992, these prominent healthcare and community leaders commissioned a community survey and found a surprising number of underinsured and uninsured citizens. Many people were unable to pay for prescription medication, emergency health, and preventative medical or dental care.
The organizational mission has always been to increase access to affordable quality health services.
In the fall of 1994, additional funding was used to create an independent, freestanding affordable care clinic. This clinic was the origin of the Open Door Health Center model as we know it today. Open to everyone regardless of income or insurance, the center was managed by nurses who provided healthcare services to women and children three days per week. Our healthcare providers were mostly volunteers. They offered medication help, blood pressure and diabetic screenings, immunizations, behavioral and nutritional counseling, and exams for women and school children.
As intended, the center was making a difference in the health of individuals and families in and around Mankato. The board of directors, believing unanimously that quality healthcare is a basic right, set strategies in place to ensure that all people throughout Southern Minnesota would have access to quality affordable care. And so we grew…
