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County Health Department Achieves Federally Qualified Status
The future of the Knox County Health Department drastically changed Wednesday morning with the awarding of a federal grant worth almost $600,000 dollars.

At a Chicago conference, Administrator Heidi Britton was checking her e-mails when she stumbled upon the news. She tells WGIL they've been seeking Federally Qualified Health Center status since December of 2010.

"You don't really fully believe that you're going to get it until you actually get the notification and we got it today (Wednesday), and it's really real," Britton said. "And this is just exciting, I'm excited beyond beyond being able to focus and concentrate at the conference that I'm at."

Director of Community Health Improvement Michelle Fishburn tells WGIL Wednesday's announcement was worth the wait because so many more patients can now be seen.

"It's a lot of relief mostly because it makes it a lot easier to help pretty much anybody that walks through our doors," Fishburn said. "So that's a big relief for myself and all the staff here."

Eleven total health centers in Illinois will be receiving around $6.5 million dollars to serve almost 80,000 more patients.

Nationally, the health care law's expansion will create over 5,500 new jobs in forty-one grant winning states. Ten to twelve jobs are expected to be added within two years in Knox County.

The health department has 120 days to become compliant with the Health Resources and Services Administration to officially receive the award.
06 21 12 by Newsroom
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