Chillicothe's firstfree medical clinic to open Monday by Physiciandispensingnews202
CHILLICOTHE -- Amazement and nervous excitement sums up many of the feelings of the Hope Clinic of Ross County's board as the clinic prepares to open its doors Monday. Volunteers and staff had a dry run of clinic operations this past Monday with the help of nursing students from the nursing program at Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center. "Overall, it went very well. My nurses, I had to settle down (due to their excitement)," said Jami Easterday, nursing/patient flow coordinator. The clinic has been in the pipeline since November 2010 when a group of Brookside Church members began talking at the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving meal about Chillicothe's need for a free medical clinic, said Lana Uhrig, operations coordinator. The members reached out to combine forces with Dr. Kevin Doherty to begin organizing people to make the dream a reality. "Over the years in the medical community, there have been doctors who have dreamed of starting a clinic. It's overwhelming to start a clinic ...The reason this has worked is because it started with God," said Dr. Jennifer Allen, who is leading quality assurance coordinating and credentialing for the clinic. The clinic, run by volunteers, will provide basic medical care Monday evenings at the former Nurse-of-the-Day Clinic to people without insurance. Because the facility and current number of physicians and other medical staff volunteers, the clinic will be able to serve only 25 to 30 people each evening, with patients to be decided on a first-come, first-served basis via the issuing of numbers as people arrive. The clinic will not be dispensing medicine or prescribing any narcotics. Ross County Community Action will be working with the clinic to help clinic clients pay for prescriptions. There also will be a social worker available to meet with patients to direct them toward other resources for help, and spiritual volunteers will be on hand to pray with patients. The clinic is opening after having received $48,000 in funding, every dollar of which has been from local support, including grants from The David Meade Massie Trust, Junior Civic League, the United Way and AEP. Some donations also have come in from churches, board members and through collection jars at the Chillicothe Farmers Market and the YMCA. Those were the donations financial officer Alan Davis said were most important. "Without that seed money, that's what I call it, we never would have gotten to the point where we could do grant writing," Davis said. Others also have given in-kind donations, such as free advertising on Horizon's local access channel, the Health District providing a space for the clinic, and support from Adena Health System. With regard to people providing hands to do the work, more than 175 volunteers have gone through training and a dozen physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants have pledged to work in the clinic. "We are very, very pleased with the amount of community support we've had," Allen said. The clinic also has plans to treat its volunteers well, providing them with a light meal before their shift at the clinic. So far, hospitality coordinator Melissa Fahlgren said enough churches have pledged to provide a meal through March. While Fahlgren hopes to see additional churches help, she also wants to call on local restaurants. The biggest concern moving forward is demand for services. "I think it's going to be an overwhelming line (Monday), and you're going to run out of numbers quickly," YMCA executive director Dave Tener told the rest of the board this week. Dr. David Smith agreed. "We're going to have to very quickly deal with the fact we can only deal with a small number of people the way we are set up now," Smith said. Even with the concern, it hasn't hampered the dream for the future of the clinic. "We're hoping to dream it even bigger, dental care maybe," said Dr. Jane Roach. "There's a lot of need down here." Davis hopes others will be inspired to work together to meet other community needs. "I've felt for quite a while, we don't have enough money to deal with everything through government alone ...If not the government, then who? I think as someone who has a faith background, it's individuals who come forward and said, 'Maybe it's me,'" Davis said. By that, he means anything from volunteering their time to putting $1 in the donation box. "Maybe it will set the tone for the community for us to come together (and meet needs of the community)," Davis said.
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