In 1965, the Geiger Gibson Community Health Center opened on Columbia Point as the nation’s first community health center. In 2020, the facility was closed to in-person appointments due to the pandemic. Last week, some five years later, medical services were renewed at 250 Mt Vernon St, where Geiger Gibson, with an in-house pharmacy, offers same-day appointments for medical, dental, and behavioral health and community members can find convenient care for their families, all in one building. 

“Geiger was the heart of the Columbia Point Housing Development. It was a place that was considered safe and welcoming,” said Ami Bowen, VP of marketing and community engagement for Harbor Health Services, the parent agency for the health center. “We would love to have that kind of role in the community again. It’s exciting to bring services back because the community has been asking for them.” 

The medical team is led by a new medical director, Dr. Caroline Mullin, a primary care provider who has been in practice in Boston for the past seven years and is excited to bring her expertise to Dorchester. 

“I’ve been trained in a broad range of skills and the whole idea is that I can go into a community and be a little bit of a chameleon to provide the community what it needs,” Mullin told The Reporter.  “It was a deliberate choice by Harbor Health to open a family medicine department. I see newborns, we see pediatric patients, we see their older siblings, cousins, uncles, all the way up to their grandparents. There is nobody in the community who should look here and say, ‘I can’t get my care there.’”

During the first week of services, Mullin said, she saw about six patients a day but expects these numbers to increase quickly. “I hope that if you come through here a year from now, and you ask the residents where they are getting their care, they’re going to say, ‘that building over there and we’re really happy with the care they provided.’”

Geiger Gibson Community Health Center is open for medical, dental, and behavioral health appointments. Here Harley Davidson, senior VP of community health centers stands behind his excited team. From left to right: Ngoc Tran, registered nurse; Jamila Puckerin, practice manager; Ami Bowen, VP of marketing and community engagement; and Dr. Caroline Mullin, primary care provider and medical director. Cassidy McNeeley photos

While the center was closed for services, patients were directed to seek care at the Daniel Driscoll Neponset Health Center, but with heavy traffic and unreliable public transportation from point to point, the transition was a challenge for many. 

Geiger Gibson practice manager Jamila Puckerin, who is from Dorchester, understands first-hand the importance of an accessible center. 
“This area, it’s one way in, one way out. We have a huge development here with low-income families and market-rent families. This area lacks health care, and dental,” said Puckerin. “All the families here were taking a cab or using public transportation. Being able to come here and walk here is phenomenal for them.”

Puckerin said the center’s physical location isn’t the only thing that makes its services accessible: “We do not turn anyone away for lack of health insurance. We have sliding scale fees depending on your income.” The center also helps patients sign up for insurance.

Resuming medical services at Geiger Gibson became even more important after the closing of Carney Hospital earlier this year.

“By taking away some access to primary care, you’re already increasing the demand for primary care. I’m hopeful this will be a comfortable place for people to land who feel like they have lost their primary care home prior,” said Dr. Mullin. 

While the health center hopes to relieve some of the blow of Carney’s abrupt closure, it is not a complete solution. 

“When you work at a community health center, you don’t have all your auxiliary services,” said Mullin. “We don’t have radiology on-site, for example, and Carney was a place we leaned on for support services. It means that our patients have to look and go further for those services, which will make things more challenging.”

Fortunately, many patients will find the help they need right at the center.

“We’re a smaller clinic so they’re going to get that individualized treatment,” Puckerin said. “They’re going to get extra care and help with their referrals and making their appointments. They’re going to get all the assistance that they need here.”

While services are off to a good start, the senior VP of Harbor Health’s Community Health Centers, Harley Davidson, hopes to see the center flourish.

“I want us to continue growing and being able to expand our hours to where we are there when the community needs us,” he said. “Also stepping outside of these four walls and meeting the needs of the community in other ways.”

The health center is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call 617-288-1140 to make an appointment.