September 11, 1998 

Supervising the health care needs of six children is no easy task. From bumps and scrapes to physicals and immunizations, Margaret Smith had her hands full. But there was one place to which she could turn over the years – the MGH·Charlestown HealthCare Center.

Smith has been going to MGH·Charlestown for years for her health care; she also worked at the center for 22 years.

"I loved my job taking care of the people that I knew in town," says Smith. "But most important, the health center staff, who were like a family, has always been there for me."

MGH·Charlestown, which has been taking care of families like the Smiths for 30 years, and will be celebrating its anniversary Sept. 13 to 18. (See schedule of events in What's happening, in this issue.)

The health center was exactly what Charlestown needed in 1968, when only two physicians were available in the town and many residents had few choices for their medical care. The health center opened in September of that year as the Bunker Hill Health Center. At the time, the center offered an unusual concept in combining municipal, school and public health into a program affiliated with a university teaching hospital.

"Back then, many forces converged to encourage the MGH to look beyond its walls," says Roger Sweet, MD, former medical director of MGH·Charlestown. "Our goal was to create a model of health care that would be cost efficient and form a new delivery system to address issues that were important to Charlestown."

According to Peggy Carolan, administrative director of MGH·Charlestown, the health center's original mission has endured throughout the past 30 years. "It has evolved into a full-service health center, offering a broad range of services, from obstetrics to primary care to geriatric care, and has created community service programs such as Camp Bunker Hill – a therapeutic summer day camp for children who have trouble functioning in traditional school settings," says Carolan. "Along with these changes, our original mission still remains to improve the health of our community by understanding its needs, providing accessible preventive services, advocating for our patients, educating other health care professionals in a community-based setting and bringing available resources from the MGH and Partners HealthCare System to our patients."

Patient-centered care is something that Smith is familiar with – not only through her work at the health center but through her experiences as four generations of her family have used the health center for their medical needs.

"Before the health center opened, you had to go to the emergency room at the hospital if you really had a problem," says Smith. "Being able to have all of your medical needs taken care of under one roof was tremendous."

Smith started working at the health center in 1969 as a nursing assistant, helping the physicians with patient care. "I loved working with the patients since I knew most of them from the community," she says. Because of a back injury, Smith took a secretarial job after five years of providing patient care. But she still kept her fingers on the pulse of the health center.

"It was great to see the center go from having only two physicians and two nurses to having three floors with different kinds of specialty care," says Smith. "I was fortunate to watch firsthand how the center grew. We went from seeing three patients a day to seeing more than 1,000 in a week. It was truly gratifying to work there."

Now retired, Smith misses the center's patients and staff. To occupy the void, she has become a novice health care "advocate," talking to neighbors and relatives about their own health care and the importance of seeing a physician regularly. And where does she refer them for their health care needs? The MGH·Charlestown HealthCare Center, of course.