FOSTER — Northwest Community Health Care received state approval Tuesday for an organized ambulatory-care-facility license which paves the way for plans to open the town’s first primary-medical-care and dentistry center.

Members of the Health Services Council, which is an advisory group to state Health Director David R. Gifford, praised the center for offering to provide services to low- to moderate-income residents in a historically underserved region.

“The organization should be commended for providing services to an area that is not being served,” said council member John W. Flynn. “Rhode Island benefits and certainly those in Connecticut do, too,” said council vice chairwoman Victoria Almeida.

The state defines an organized ambulatory-care facility as any health-care institution that provides outpatient services for those not requiring immediate emergency medical care. An OACF license covers infirmaries, diagnostic centers, outpatient clinics, treatment and rehabilitation centers, and health centers not associated with hospitals.

Northwest Community Health Care CEO Peter Bancroft said the nonprofit, which operates a primary-care clinic in Burrillville, has entered into an agreement to purchase the 8,900-square-foot shopping plaza at 142A Danielson Pike.

Built in 1989, the one-story property is owned by Clodomiro Gabriele, according to town records. Bancroft said the organization is purchasing the property for about $1.25 million.

Northwest will take over space formerly occupied by University Medicine Foundation, a medical practice that closed earlier this month. Expected opening date for the new medical-care facility is in September.

It will also renovate a 2,000-square-foot suite in the plaza for the dental office, which is expected to open in March 2009. Northwest eventually plans to offer behavioral health and related patient support services at the medical center, according to Bancroft.

The clinic will be open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., but hours may expand to include evenings and Saturdays, said Bancroft. Either a physician or nurse practitioner would be on duty at the center during those hours. The office would serve Foster, southern Glocester, western Scituate, northern Coventry, and bordering communities in Connecticut.

Northwest estimates that 2,500 area residents would seek care at the facility, which has received endorsement from the Town Council, according to Bancroft.

Like the organization’s facility in Burrillville, the new site would not turn away any patient because of an inability to pay, according to its license application. Qualifying uninsured patients would receive services at a fee of $10 to $35 a visit.

Patients would also be eligible to participate in Northwest’s 340(b) pharmacy program, which is administered in collaboration with the three closest CVS pharmacies in Glocester and Burrillville, according to Northwest’s application to the state Department of Health.

Northwest is borrowing $1.5 million to purchase and renovate the building. It has secured a 40-year loan of $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a $500,000 loan from the Washington Trust Company.

A federal earmark of $426,000 secured by the state congressional delegation to Washington, D.C., last year will be used to purchase equipment, furniture, and computer software for the site.

Northwest is anticipating a $25,000 loss of revenue in its first year of operation but about $40,000 in profit every year thereafter, according to the Health Services Council.

The decision to establish a health center in town was made nearly three years ago after Northwest conducted a townwide survey, which found that 42 percent of residents do not regularly visit the dentist and that the average resident drives 15 to 20 miles to visit a doctor or a dentist.

“Presently, there are no dentists or pharmacies in Foster and following the closing of University Medical Foundation’s practice, there will be no physicians or other primary-care provider practicing in that town,” Bancroft said in Northwest’s license application.

The organization had originally sought local and state approval to construct an office on a 6.25-acre parcel at Shippee Schoolhouse Road and Route 6.

pmarcelo@projo.com