The mission of the Shalom Health Care Center, Inc. (Shalom) is "helping families meet their needs through affordable and accessible health care". Shalom provides primary health care services, including acute and chronic health care services, from a primary care center located on the Northwest side of Indianapolis in the Eagledale Community, in addition Shalom has seven school based clinics which serve the students of those schools.
Shalom offers a sliding fee scale that adjusts charges at the primary health care sites according to family size and income. No one is refused service because of inability to pay. At this time, students seen in the school-based clinics are not charged for primary health care services. Funding for Shalom comes from grants and donations. Patient receipts account for less than ten percent of Shalom's budget; Shalom is also an approved Medicare and Medicaid provider. Shalom has developed collaborations with a wide array of local resources to maximize the range of services it can provide at minimum cost. Shalom works closely with the local public hospital system, the state and county health departments, and many agencies that provide specific social support services.
Shalom evolved from a project that was initiated in 1994 by two faculty members of the Indiana University School of Nursing to address a need for accessible and affordable health care for residents in a medically underserved inner city area. The project opened one small clinic in a downtown church, added a second site in 1995, and eventually grew to consist of two primary care clinics and five school-based clinics. By 2002 it was clear that Shalom had grown far beyond the project stage and needed to operate as an independent organization. It formally incorporated in August 2002, established its own Board of Directors, and began operations as a nonprofit corporation in January 2003.
Shalom has continued to build on the achievements which laid the groundwork for what the organization is today. Shalom is particularly proud of its accomplishments in meeting the needs of the rapidly growing Hispanic population of Indianapolis. Shalom responded to the needs of this medically underserved minority population by hiring bilingual staff, interpreters/translators and a community outreach coordinator. The provision of culturally appropriate health care continues to be a guiding principle of the organization.
In 2004 Shalom consolidated its two primary care clinics into one larger location at 3400 Lafayette Road. To date Shalom has four federally funded school-based health care centers, four additional school-based health care centers partially funded by a grant from the Learning Well Corporation and one primary care center partially funded by a grant from the Indiana State Department of Health. Shalom is an enrollment site for Hoosier Healthwise and the Advantage Program. Both of these programs offer insurance coverage for patients who have a household income of less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. In 2009 there were over 5,200 patients that visited one of Shalom's clinics resulting in over 17,500 patient visits.
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