HOPKINTON — It began in 1976 when a group of South County residents opened a small nonprofit health center in rented space on Mechanic Street. They were seeking to expand healthcare services in the region, which at the time had only one such facility, a 16-mile drive away in Wakefield.
That was Wood River Health, a half-century ago.
Today?
Wood River Health owns and operates a main, 20,000-square-foot facility in Hope Valley; a smaller healthcare center in Westerly; and a dental clinic on New Shoreham that is run in partnership with Block Island Health.
Today, Wood River employs almost 100 staff members. Last year, it served
11,834 unique patients. An increase from 10,460 in 2024.
Today, it is a Federally Qualified Health Center and receives funds from the HRSA Health Center Program, which helps “people and groups who find it difficult to access health care.”
And today, Wood River Health is recognized as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (NCQA) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a “private, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality” with headquarters in Washington, D.C. A Patient-Centered Medical Home is “a model of care that puts patients at the forefront of care,” according to the NCQA.
As Wood River Health marks 50 years, Ocean State Stories asked several employees and executives to reflect on their heritage. This is what they said.
“I’m from Westerly, which is only 20 minutes from Hope Valley. My boys went there when they were younger, and they still do as grown adults. I went there. I used their community resources to help me with navigating health insurance, which was always a scary process for me to do as a single mother of two. So I knew about Wood River. I loved what they stood for. which is helping, helping in the community. You’re never turned away…
“I have a great staff. They have empathy toward patients, and they are very patient. You need that because you have a lot of patients that come in who need your help. It’s more than just checking them in and making sure they’re seen on time. We at the front desk don’t just deal with medical since we offer dental, behavioral health, and so many other services than medical. So the front desk is a very, very busy place.”
— Kimberly Sunderland, Lead Front Desk Receptionist
“I work in dental and most of my day is full of dental things, but there’s a lot of integration. We screen all of our patients for behavioral health [issues]. We work very closely with community resources to get funding for patients who may otherwise not be able to afford care. We work closely with the medical department because there’s a correlation between diabetes and oral health. So I get to work in a lot of different areas, which is very exciting to me…
“Anytime people hear that ‘oh, Helen works at Wood River’ everybody has a story about a great doctor or an experience here. So it’s really exciting to be a part of this. And I think it’s a testament to the care that we provide to all patients, whether they’re privately insured or don’t have the ability to pay for care. We’re offering those services that everyone is deserving of.”
— Helen Bell, Director of Dental Operations
“When I came on board six years ago, I didn’t know a lot about Wood River Health. I knew that it was a big part of the community, but as I learned about what we do and how we do it, I understood the value of the importance of health care and making sure that it gets out to everybody. And that’s what we’ve tried to focus on really over the 50 years: how do we get better…
“I knew of Wood River from the other side of the fence, which was when I was town council president in Richmond for about 10 years. When they came to our council for support, I was always 100 percent. The strength of Wood River has always been its community and its people and its staff. When I’m here, I can feel it when I walk through the lobby. You see a team of people who are engaged in ensuring that our community stays very healthy and strong. And that’s the way it should be. When someone walks in, it’s like they’re walking into a family taking care of you.”
— Joe Reddish, Chairman of the Board
“We help coordinate people getting connected to the other services that they may need. We do behavioral health and social-determinant-of-health screenings. If those are flagged so that it looks like someone could use some support, we may follow up with an internal referral, or we may come and meet the person in real time at the appointment. And that, really, is a cornerstone of our integrated health…
“The provider can say to their patient, ‘we have someone on our team who can really help you with strategies to support your sleep’ if you’re really struggling because you have so much stress in your life, or you have a new diagnosis and you’re grieving that your life will be different, or you need to make some adjustments in your life because of hypertension or diabetes or a loss. They can introduce us as trusted colleagues, which really helps in engagement.”
— Christine King, Senior Director of Integrated Care, Behavioral Health Team
“I originally became a member of the Board because I and my family had been patients since the 1980s. I liked the idea of a provider who worked in a group as opposed to just having one doctor who could have an off day or could be sick themselves and not available. Also, the fact that the practice was monitored for quality by the government and had a lot of quality measures to meet and was also a facility that provided care to those regardless of financial ability to pay…
“Over the years Wood River has consistently become larger and better as far as the way it’s professionally run, is more financially stable, and is more community-oriented. They participate with other groups in the community to keep everyone connected to those features that are important to everyone’s health beyond just the actual physical health care — housing, working with the homeless, all the things that Wood River participates in addition to providing health care. Making the community as a whole healthier is really important.”
— Robin Devin, long-time patient and former Board member
“I have been a nurse practitioner for 15 years, ten here at Wood River. Four years into those 10 years, I became lead nurse practitioner, managing nurse practitioners and physician assistants. And I see my own patient panel. In managing, I onboard new providers, take care of the on-call and Saturday schedules, and [help with] some of the day-to-day activities in the medical department…
“In these past 10 years, we’ve grown in integrated care. We have many different departments working together here at Wood River and that is the biggest thing for me.”
— Shitai Desai, Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner
“The 50th is a big milestone and we’re very excited. We were a very small organization when we were founded — really an offshoot of the health center of South County, which was in Wakefield. And the people who lived in this part of South County decided ‘Wakefield’s too far. We need our own health center.’…
“And so a group of local folks got together and formed our organization in 1976. A lot has happened in 50 years. We’ve grown tremendously from the small organization that we were when we were founded. It’s been an interesting journey and a nice long history.”
— Alison Croke, President and CEO
Watch a video about 50 years of Wood River Health. CLICK HERE.
