WELCOME TO THUNDERMIST

Thundermist Health Center is a nonprofit, federally qualified community health center. Founded more than 55 years ago, we now serve more than 63,000 patients—or 1 in 18 Rhode Islanders.

In 1969, a few dedicated individuals realized Woonsocket needed a place to provide quality healthcare to the people who need it most. What started with a handful of individuals volunteering their time out of a public housing complex became a full-fledged health center just few years later and continued to evolve to meet the needs of the community.
Over the last two-plus decades, Thundermist has continued to grow and innovate to meet the needs of the communities we serve. Here are some of our highlights and milestones:

• 2001: Thundermist merges with the Health Center of South County.
• 2005: We renovate an old warehouse in Woonsocket into a flagship health center.
• 2011: Thundermist opens the state’s first health center site fully designed as a patient-centered medical home, converting an old mill building in West Warwick. We become the first Rhode Island community health center to achieve patient-centered medical home accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
• 2015: We open our newest facility in Wakefield, which expands capacity to serve area medical, dental, and behavioral health patients by more than 30%.
• 2017-18: Woonsocket and West Warwick facilities expand to serve more patients.
• 2020-21: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we played an instrumental role in responding to our patients’ needs, including setting up drive-through respiratory clinics and spearheading vaccination efforts for low-income and underserved communities.
• 2022: We acquire South County Pediatrics and expand services for children and families in that area.
• 2023: We transform a long-vacant building in the heart of West Warwick into a state-of-the-art dental clinic. The same year, we worked with partners throughout the state to launch an innovative medical respite program that provides unhoused individuals with housing and support services so they can recover from surgery.
• 2025: We launch a mobile care unit (known as “Rolling Thunder”) to bring medical and behavioral health services to some of the hardest-to-reach patients at community partner locations across the state.