PAXTON — Gibson Area Hospital’s chief executive officer said his hospital’s board of directors will discuss in March the possibility of collaborating with Hoopeston Community Memorial Hospital on the operation of a proposed community health center in Paxton.

“We are having our board retreat in March,” Gibson Area Hospital CEO Rob Schmitt said. “Our board and medical staff are going up to Chicago for a weekend to do our three-year strategic retreat and strategic planning, and that’s going to be a topic of discussion during that retreat.”

Hoopeston Community Memorial Hospital’s chief executive officer, Harry Brockus, said last fall that his hospital was “trying to look at all avenues” for partnering with area agencies and businesses to operate a planned community health center in Paxton. And Brockus said one of those possible partnerships is with Gibson Area Hospital, which already operates a health clinic and ambulance garage in Paxton.

Brockus said at the time that he wanted to meet with GAH officials to see “how we could potentially work together to improve the access to health care” in the Paxton area.

On Friday, Schmitt said he has spoken with Brockus about the possibility, but no decisions have been made.

“The last conversation I had with Harry, I told him, we’re going to talk about it there (at the board retreat in Chicago), and whatever comes out of there, I’ll let you know. But up until then there’s nothing to talk about, really,” Schmitt said.

Brockus said in July that within two years the Hoopeston hospital hopes to open a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in an 80-year-old building it bought in April at 651 E. Pells St. in Paxton.

The health center — expected to be called the Paxton Family Clinic and Ambulatory Services Center — would employ 43 people and provide a range of outpatient services, including family practice, nursing care, advanced imaging, onsite laboratory services and pre- and post-natal care. It would also include an “urgent care center” and an ambulance service.

An FQHC, commonly referred to as a community health clinic, is a nonprofit, community-directed outpatient health-care provider serving low-income and medically under-served communities.

FQHCs are generally located in communities that lack hospitals but have high elderly populations, Brockus said. The facilities are designed to provide less-costly care for Medicare patients, whose deductible co-pays are waived at those facilities.

Brockus said last fall that, besides Gibson Area Hospital, he has also been in discussions with several other “community partners ... that want to work with us,” ranging from pharmacists in Paxton to the local Community Resource & Counseling Center, which provides mental health care treatment.

Brockus said in July that the hospital hopes to sign contracts with agencies and businesses to provide those services.

“We’re trying to look at all avenues,” Brockus said.