Business of the Year - Health Care: HealthFirst Family Care Center

HealthFirst Family Care Center, a private nonprofit primary care provider, has been providing affordable healthcare to rural communities in the Lakes Region since 1996.

HealthFirst’s CEO and President Russell Keene, a Berlin native who served as president and CEO for Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin for nearly 20 years, joined HealthFirst in 2019, just months before the COVID public health crisis began.

Keene praises his staff for being nimble in those early months of the pandemic. “They pivoted, and just did what they needed to do to keep the place going,” he says. “And they did it with resiliency. They were just terrific during a very difficult time for everybody.”

To meet the increasing needs in the community, HealthFirst developed high-quality behavioral health services for schools. It recently created a behavioral health program that is operating in the Newfound Regional School District and signed an agreement with the Mascoma Regional School District. “We have people embedded in schools so we can meet kids and young adults in an environment that is more open to them,” Keene says. 

HealthFirst also has an agreement with Plymouth State University to bring interns from the school’s Clinical Mental Health Program to assist at its facilities. “When they graduate, they come back here and go to work. So, it’s really been a program that’s a win, win,” Keene says.

As an integrated health provider, HealthFirst provides a Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program for substance use disorders. Before coming to HealthFirst, Keene was executive project manager of The Doorways-NH, created to address the state’s opioid crisis. “When people come in for a primary care visit we can assess whether they need mental health therapy or help with substance abuse. We have the people and the staff and the resources that can deal with it,” Keene says.

HealthFirst took over the Mascoma Community Health Center in Canaan last September and recently completed a $1 million project at one of its locations in Laconia. The organization is undergoing a $3 million upgrade at its Center Street facility in Franklin to turn it into a medical campus, which it hopes to complete in the next 10 months.

“We want the buildings and the facilities to be welcoming and to make sure we can meet the needs of the community,” Keene says, adding HealthFirst is continuing to add to its staff. “We hire people who are high achievers, and we stay the heck out of their way.”