Company Profile
Harbor Health Services Inc Elder Service Plan
Company Overview
Harbor Health Services, Inc. is a private, non-profit community health agency that provides care to underserved communities through five federally funded Community Health Centers and and 2 PACE programs (a Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly who are at risk for nursing home placement). Harbor also administers a WIC (Women, Infant and Children) nutrition assistance program.
Harbor’s service area includes parts of the city of Boston, primarily Dorchester, adjacent South Shore communities, Plymouth and adjacent communities and the Hyannis and surrounding communities on Cape Cod.
The agency employs over 500 staff located in 7 sites in Dorchester, Mattapan, Brockton, Plymouth, Hyannis and Dennis, MA.
Harbor’s Mission is to help individuals and communities achieve their full potential through access to local, affordable services that promote health. Our vision is for everyone in our communities to be empowered to lead a healthy, independent, and fulfilled life.
Company History
The Harbor Health Services story spans over five decades.
Dr. Jack Geiger and Dr. Count Gibson founded the first community health centers in the nation in one urban and one rural community. Dr. Geiger’s vision sought to confront abject poverty and medical disenfranchisement. He believed a health center would not only provide much needed medical relief and social services, but also a path toward community empowerment and direct citizen action. People would lift themselves and their families out of poverty and bring their neighbors with them. The community health centers were not the end – they were the means. Located on an isolated and impoverished peninsula in Boston, Massachusetts, Columbia Point Health Center, now known as Geiger Gibson Community Health Center, became the first operating community health center in the nation when it opened in 1965.
Health center operations took place humbly inside a troubled public housing project basement; it was an area that even city ambulances did not venture without a police escort.
When the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy visited the health center in August 1966, he saw how the lack of medical care gravely impacts a neighborhood and the promising solution of Columbia Point Health Center. The visit had a profound effect on Kennedy’s thinking, as
he explained years later: “I have been a strong supporter of community health centers since theinspiring day I visited the one that started it all…”
Harbor Health Services was formed as a 501 (c)(3) organization in 1985 when the Columbia Point and Neponset Health Center
came together in pursuit of their steadfast commitment to community health. Columbia Point was officially renamed Geiger Gibson Community Health Center in honor of the men who started the community health center movement.
Today, Harbor Health continues to respond to current and emerging health needs in communities not only in Boston, but also on the South Shore and Cape Cod. More than 34,000 patients a year receive care at Harbor’s five community health centers.
Harbor’s community health centers offer kind, caring, and affordable medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, and social support services. Harbor Health also operates two Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly in Mattapan and Brockton, providing comprehensive healthcare, transportation and social services for more than 580 frail elders who continue to live with dignity and independence in the community.
Benefits
For Physicians and Nurse Practitioners, we offer a Continuing Medical Education Stipend of up to $2500 and 5 days of leave per year, and reimbursement for initial and renewal cost of licenses. Our company benefits include 25 days of PTO to start with additional 11 Paid Holidays per year.
Other benefits for all staff also include health, dental and vision insurance, 403b retirement savings plan with discretionary match, company paid life insurance and company paid disability insurance after 2 years of full time employment, generous PTO based on tenure .