Uphams Corner Health Center

About Us:

The Upham’s Corner Health Committee was established in 1971 as the outgrowth of community action to develop a primary health care facility in the Upham’s Corner community. This action was undertaken in response to the exodus of physicians from Upham’s Corner moving their practices to the suburbs or closing them due to retirement.

As originally formed, the Committee consisted of approximately thirty community residents with diverse backgrounds who came together to meet on a regular basis around the issue of providing quality health care to the Upham’s Corner community. In August 1971, the group obtained a small grant from the Permanent Charities Foundation in Boston and used this money to employ a consultant to help them develop their plans for the opening of a community health center.

In December 1971, the community group formally incorporated themselves into the Upham’s Corner Health Committee, Inc. and elected a community Board representing the ethnic groups in the community. The corporation is nonprofit under Chapter 180 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

During the winter of 1972, the group successfully obtained additional grants of approximately $70,000.00 from the Boston Family Planning Project and the Department of Health & Hospitals for the opening of the new Upham’ s Corner Health Center. A director was hired and the proposed health center received tax-exempt status.

The Health Center Opens:

Located in temporary quarters on the second floor of the Municipal Building at 500 Columbia Road, the health center was ready for its first patients on January 1, 1973. One session a week of adult medicine and two sessions of pediatrics plus laboratory services were provided.

The health center was able to move into permanent quarters on the first floor of the Municipal Building in March 1973 after the Draft Board relocated. The Health Committee renovated the first floor space to provide a waiting room, six exam rooms, office and a laboratory. In May, a new director was employed and in June, the new facility opened. His Honor, Kevin H. White, Mayor of Boston, dedicated the new facility on June 26, 1973.

Our Mission:

Our goal is to provide comprehensive health and social services of the highest quality that are affordable, physically and culturally accessible, delivered in a dignified manner, and have a positive effect upon the client’s well – being. The Upham’s Corner Health Center is a non-profit, organization. UCHC’s IRS Form 990 information is posted on the Web at www.guidestar.org.

The Upham’s Corner Health Center is organized to provide comprehensive, personalized and continuous health services. The goal of the health center is to provide each patient with primary care in comfort and convenience. Each registered patient is assigned a personal primary care physician. The personal physician provides the ongoing care, coordinates specialty services and inpatient care as required by the patient.

The health center physicians follow patients in need of hospitalization and participates in treating them in the hospital setting. Boston Medical Center provides the major hospital support for specialty consultation and inpatient care. UCHC’s medical records and communication flow are maintained between the health center and hospitals. Medical records are filed by family to facilitate family-centered coordination of services.

We promise to:

• Serve all patients
• Offer discounted fees for patients who qualify
• Not deny services based on a person’s race, disability, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or inability to pay
• Accept insurance, including: Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)