Company Description

The dream of a free clinic in Prescott was envisioned by three local nurses and the subject of their senior project for their bachelor’s degrees in nursing in 1993.

By 1994, the same three nurses had set up a not for profit organization and named it the Prescott Free Clinic, Inc (PFC). The purpose of the organization was to provide medical services to patients who were low-income and did not have insurance. The local medical community supported the totally volunteer organization that was open two evenings per week and housed in the Yavapai County Health Department (later to become Yavapai County Community Health Services). After seven years of operation, the demand for services was too great to be met through a part-time volunteer based operation.

In 1999, a steering committee was formed with representatives from the Prescott Free Clinic, Inc., Yavapai County Health Department and the local community to apply for funding from the Arizona State Tobacco Tax that had funds designated for primary care services.

In July 2000, YCCHS in partnership with the Prescott Free Clinic, Inc., received its first year of funding through the Arizona State Tobacco Tax Grant. In January 2001, the Community Health Center of Yavapai (CHCY) opened as a full-time, community health center serving the Prescott and Prescott Valley area.

In the beginning, CHCY provided primary medical care. It added behavioral health services in the fall of 2001 with the receipt of a four-year Robert Wood Johnson Local Initiatives Funding Partners (LIFP) award. The Federal 330(e) Community Health Center designation was awarded in late 2002, resulted in implementation of federally-qualified health center standards. Dental services were added in March 2003. In January 2004, YCCHS moved its Reproductive Health, Well Women Healthcheck Program (WWHC) and primary care clinic in Cottonwood under the CHCY. Prenatal care was added in 2006. In 2007, the Cottonwood location expanded its medical services by adding a fulltime physician to the existing nurse practitioner. In November 2008, CHCY-Cottonwood opened a second dental clinic servicing patients in the Verde Valley. In June, 2011 the community health center in Cottonwood moved from the YCCHS building into its own separate health center.

For more information about the CHCY, our sliding fee scale for those without insurance, or to make an appointment with one of our medical care providers, please call 928-583-1000 in the Prescott area, or 928-639-8132 in the Verde Valley.