A leadership style focused on collaboration has served Brooks Miller well since he joined Jordan Valley Community Health Center as its president and CEO in 2001.
As a federally qualified health center, Jordan Valley primarily serves uninsured and underinsured individuals, and Miller has helped guide its startup and growth.
“Jordan Valley Community Health Center started in a store-front facility less than a decade ago,” Miller says. “Now, the budget exceeds $22 million annually, with a campus in Springfield, a clinic in Marshfield and mobile units to extend services into rural southwest Missouri.”
He says the center now has 50 providers and nearly 200 support staff, serving 35,000 patients with 110,000 visits annually.
“I’m constantly working with providers, the health department and our local governing board to assess emerging needs,” Miller says.
Earlier this year, center officials announced plans for an $8 million expansion of the health center’s campus in center city. A $5 million capital development grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is paying the bulk of the costs for a 30,000-square-foot facility due north of the existing center.
Collaboration also comes through the center’s ongoing efforts to unite providers, community groups and Springfield’s major health systems to tackle needs such as prenatal care for mothers who are on Medicaid. “With obstetricians from Mercy and residents from CoxHealth, as well as our own ... providers, Jordan Valley is improving access and helping create healthier outcomes for mothers and babies,” Miller says. “We’ve also established community partnerships to address transportation issues and provide free courses on chronic disease management.”
Miller’s civic efforts are closely tied to his work at Jordan Valley Health Center and include serving on The Health Commission and the Every Child initiative.
Miller points to the outcomes of his – and the center’s – efforts as most gratifying.
“I am most proud of the difference we make in the lives of our patients – our neighbors,” he says. “We see it when we literally help a child breathe easier through our Asthma Academy, give someone relief from unrelenting dental pain or immunize hundreds of children in efforts to give them a healthy start.”
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