With top of the line care, pristine facilities, and creative problem solving, Primary Health Solutions is meeting people where they are as a partner in their wellness journeys in Southwest Ohio.
PHS provides primary care, dental, chiropractic care, vision, mental health care, pharmacies, school based health centers, women’s health, and medical and dental express care to 80,000 residents across Butler and Montgomery counties. PHS offers comprehensive medical care with a focus on respect, innovation, stewardship, and excellence in a unique, integrative, advanced primary care model of practice. This structure allows practitioners across areas of expertise to collaborate with one another to provide the best support available for each individual patient. As many services as possible are put in each location to make access straightforward.
As a 501c3 nonprofit, and a Federally Qualified Health Center, PHS receives federal grants and participates in the 340B Drug Program which allows patients that meet certain eligibility criteria to get their medications at extremely discounted rates through PHS pharmacies. PHS is not a free clinic. Due to this structure, PHS is able to offer medical and dental care on a sliding fee scale to patients who do not have adequate health insurance, making quality healthcare available to everyone. President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Roller says patients will typically pay something, but it is what is considered a nominal fee. “If someone shows up and they're at 100% of the federal poverty level, they could see a physician, get the labs they need, get an x-ray if they need it, maybe all for $25,” Roller said. “So it's not free, but it's very affordable.”
While making medical and dental care accessible is a focus at PHS, care is available for anyone. Patients could have the best insurance available, and still choose to use PHS because they want to see a specific doctor, or like the integrated model of practice, location, or otherwise.
Additionally, PHS is not limited to one healthcare network. “By partnering with leading hospitals and specialty providers throughout southwest Ohio, we expand access to orthopedics, cardiology and women’s health services. We continuously assess which specialty services can be thoughtfully integrated into our care model.” There's a lot of data that shows whether you're a Medicaid, uninsured patient population, or you're fully commercially insured, that model is really the way forward to better health outcomes at a lower total cost of care.”
PHS continually looks for ways to meet the needs of the community and make care more accessible in creative ways. One of these ways is through a partnership with local school systems to provide school based health centers. In Hamilton, this center is located at Garfield Middle School. Students, family members, and community members can all be seen at this site, which is open year round. There is even a collaboration which allows students, with permission, to be bussed to appointments if they don’t have access to transportation.
The PHS team works closely with school nurses, success liaisons, and school counselors to make sure if someone has an acute issue they can be seen quickly, with the hope of minimizing the amount of time the child is out of the educational setting. The other focus is on the greater picture of whether the children are getting access to vision appointments, and glasses if needed, dental cleanings, wellness visits, and immunizations. “That’s really what we're trying to get, is that improved access for preventative type services so we can get a healthier student population and healthier community,” Roller said.
PHS also has Express Care facilities in Middletown and Hamilton, which provide acute care in an urgent care type setting. This provides an option outside of the emergency room for families who need care for things such as acute illness such as an ear infection. “If they can't get into a place like our Express Care, they end up going to the emergency department and waiting for hours, there are a lot of sick people there,” Roller said. “And so we provide those acute type services at our Express Care. We've seen the need go up significantly in that service line.”
Similarly, PHS has met the need for more urgent dental care needs. Express Dental opened in Middletown in April of 2025. This dental space can treat patients who have more urgent, painful dental needs, and need help as quickly as possible. Patients can walk in, rather than have to wait for an appointment and can be seen the same day. “There is a huge need. That's 25 to 35 patients (a day) that we’re saving them from having to go to the ER, or unnecessary suffering that they would have to go through, or potential medical complications.”
PHS also has a mobile dental unit used in partnership with schools or community partners. Tele-dentistry can be used for exams with a dentist using cameras and follow up treatments can be done in the office when needed. “We pride ourselves on being pretty innovative,” Roller said. “When our focus and our mission is on underserved populations, we have to be able to do more with less. And so if we can be creative, innovative and find technologies that allow us to remove the barrier of transportation or not having transportation, remove language barriers, remove other barriers that exist. It's our job and our privilege to be able to do that.”
As Primary Health Solutions continues to expand and accept new patients, the heart of what they are doing as a company remains focused on the communities being served. From low cost medication, and pharmacy deliveries for established patients, to collaborative care, and expanded express care and dental hours, the focus is community impact and growth that has a greater purpose. “We don't expand for the purpose of expansion, “ Jodi Fritsch, Director of Marketing and Community Engagement said. “It's really rooted in: where is the biggest need? What is the need for those communities, and how can we help fill it, or partner with the organization to help fill it? Because with that mission minded approach, it really is putting a community first versus the growth of our organization. It’s about the communities that we're in, and how can we help them get healthier? So when you think about what we strive to do every day, it’s the better outcomes and the lower cost of care, and how we can impact that for the community and improve the health overall.”