OFFICIALS SAY CITY NEEDS NEW CLINIC

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992                   TAG: 9201310315
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE MEDICAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
OFFICIALS SAY CITY NEEDS NEW CLINIC
A federally subsidized community health clinic may be the answer to bringing basic medical care to Northwest Roanoke, a coalition of community and health officials decided Thursday.
The informal group agreed to pursue establishing a community board to run the clinic. It also planned to review the necessary steps to apply for a federal grant this spring.
"I think everyone recognizes there is a need for more medical care in Northwest Roanoke," said Thomas Robertson, president of Carilion Health System, the parent company of Roanoke Memorial and Community hospitals. "We are at the point that community needs assistance badly."
Robertson said Carilion would support efforts to bring a community health center to the area. In the meantime, he added, Carilion hoped to recruit a physician who will see patients in Northwest while also supervising the training of family practice residents.
More than 38,000 people north of the Roanoke River live in census tracts that qualify as medically underserved under state guidelines.
In these areas there are no physician offices, a large percentage of the population is elderly, the infant mortality rate is high, incomes are below the federal poverty level for more than a quarter of the population and unemployment is a major problem.
These statistics showed up in a medical needs survey published in the fall by Dr. Donald Stern, Roanoke Health Department director, who convened Thursday's meeting.
The group decided to focus most of its efforts on 23,000 people living in six census tracts in the Northwest section of Roanoke. This was the area primarily served by Dr. Anthony Remson, an internist who left town in July.
"We've had such a problem keeping physicians in Northwest," said Eunice Poindexter, a retired Roanoke teacher who was involved in recruiting Remson six years ago.
A community health center, Poindexter said, not only would bring physicians to Northwest but would make medical care more affordable because fees would be subsidized for those who couldn't pay.
Poindexter and Stan Hale, a community leader in Northwest, agreed to help find candidates to serve on a community board for the health clinic. Hale, who also helped recruit Remson, heads the Southwest Virginia Community Development Fund, a non-profit agency that helps small businesses.
The federal government is greatly increasing the funds available to start new community health centers and has approved several in the past year for urban areas, Bruce Behringer told the group. Behringer heads the Virginia Primary Care Association, a network of 27 community health centers across Virginia.
The centers, which often receive half their budgets from federal grants, are operated by community boards. Most often they are staffed by two or more physicians and offer laboratory and X-ray services.
They are not walk-in clinics. Patients must have appointments. They do accept Medicaid and Medicare patients, as well as those with private health insurance, and have sliding fees based on a patient's family income. They are required to educate individual patients and the community about improving their health.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB