The expansion at Neighborhood Health Center Mattina helps address a need for affordable, high quality dental care in the area.
Buffalo, NY – Neighborhood Health Center is celebrating the grand opening of a new two-story addition at its Mattina location at 300 Niagara Street, Buffalo, near the entrance/exit to I-190. With this expansion, Neighborhood doubles the size of its dental suite at the site. The new suite has eight operatories and a dental lab to help address a need for high quality, affordable dental care in the area. More than 40% of residents in Neighborhood’s service area have not seen a dentist or dental hygienist in the last year.
“We know that when a person gets good dental care, the impact goes beyond oral health. It can lessen the risk for heart disease, diabetes, problems with pregnancy, and other conditions,” said Neighborhood Health Center President and CEO Joanne Haefner, MS, FNP. “It can also improve mental wellbeing because healthy teeth and gums are important to how people feel about themselves.”
The grand opening celebration includes a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, August 10, at 10:00 a.m. as part of National Health Center Week.
Neighborhood has invested approximately $9 million in the expansion of Neighborhood Health Center Mattina, which includes the purchase of the pre-existing building and renovations to that building, as well as the new construction. The site remained open during construction, continuing to serve as the primary care home for 7,000 patients. With the addition, Neighborhood has the capacity to care for an additional 2,000 patients at the site and expects to add approximately 15 new jobs at Mattina.
The total size of the new wing is 15,000 square feet with the second floor housing offices for administrative and support staff including care coordinators. Care coordinators and community health workers assist patients with referrals for healthcare services outside of the health center, as well as with social supports for patients who are experiencing housing insecurity, food insecurity, transportation barriers, or language barriers.
Neighborhood Health Center has served as the region’s leading primary care safety-net provider for 35 years and offers access to high-quality comprehensive healthcare services to Western New Yorkers, regardless of ability to pay. Those services include internal/family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology, podiatry, behavioral health and nutrition counseling, and pharmacy services. There is a history of healthcare at the Mattina location that dates back more than 100 years. Columbus Hospital served the community at the corner of Niagara and Carolina streets from 1908-1996. Kaleida Health opened the Judge Joseph S. Mattina Community Health Center in a new building on the site 2000 and operated it until 2011 when Neighborhood took over the health center. Neighborhood then purchased the building from Kaleida in 2020, and began construction on the new wing in summer 2022.
Neighborhood Health Center has a total of six sites in Western New York – four in Buffalo, and one each in Blasdell and Hamburg – plus a mobile unit. Neighborhood is the largest and longest serving Federally Qualified Health Center in the region and currently the primary care home to nearly 29,000 Western New Yorkers. To learn more about Neighborhood and its work toward health equity, please visit www.nhcwny.org.
