THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410010247
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Helena Browder and her family might be the first people at the door when a new community health center opens in downtown Portsmouth next spring.
Her family needs it. And she's worked to bring it to the city.
Browder is a cook at Mr. Dog & Friends in Norfolk. Her husband, Jesse, is a furniture mover. They don't have health insurance for themselves or their three children, who range in age from 2 weeks to 7 years.
That's why Helena serves on the board organized to start the health center. After a two-year quest, the group this week won a $337,000 federal grant as part of a program to help medically underserved areas.
Everyone will be welcome at the new clinic, but the primary clientele will be those who don't have health insurance but earn too much to be covered by Medicaid, the government program that helps pay for health care for the poor.
The center, which could open as early as May, would operate like a family practice, providing office treatment, laboratory tests, X-rays and inpatient hospital care. It also would offer prenatal care, health education programs and limited pharmacy services.
Patients will be charged for services based on their ability to pay, said John Schalk, an Eastern Virginia Medical School official who helped the group apply for the grant. Operating expenses will be subsidized with federal grants.
To win the money, a Portsmouth coalition that included people from health, social service and community groups had to prove that there aren't enough doctors to serve the community.
Dr. Venita Newby-Owens knew that wouldn't be difficult.
Newby-Owens, director of the Portsmouth Health Department, once looked at a map of Portsmouth that had been marked with each doctor's office.
It proved what she already knew: The offices were clustered in the city's relatively affluent neighborhoods like Churchland, and around Maryview Medical Center. ``We cannot say we have a shortage of physicians in Portsmouth, but we can say the physicians are not distributed in areas of poverty,'' she said.
The center's service area would include neighborhoods like Prentis Park, where the Browders live, areas around Portsmouth General Hospital and the city Health Department, and the neighborhoods along both sides of Effingham Street, Schalk said. Organizers hope to rent space near downtown.
Right now, Newby-Owens said, the working poor in Portsmouth have few options. The Health Department's primary duty is preventing disease, she said, not treating the sick.
Four years ago, the Health Department closed its general medical and dental clinics because of funding problems. Many of those who get sick end up at the emergency rooms of Portsmouth's hospitals, Newby-Owens said.
``The majority of the problems were those that could be taken care of in a physicians' office,'' she said.
Several free clinics staffed by local health workers have tried to fill the gap.
Helena Browder's family has relied on the Health Department for preventive medicine like prenatal care.
``If I have to go, I put it off as long as possible,'' Browder said. ``If I have a cold, I just don't go to the doctor.''
When one of the children gets really sick, like the time their 7-year-old daughter had strep throat, the family goes to an urgent care center. The visit for strep cost $80. The family would pay a lot less, Browder said, at a community health center.
For her, the greatest benefit of the clinic will be having a family doctor, someone who knows her children's name and understands her family's case history. ``I will know (the staff),'' she said. ``This would be our family physician.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Helena Browder - with 2-week-old Jesse Jr. and Darcele, 7 - is a
member of the center's board, and could use the center's help.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
INDIGENT PATIENTS
by CNB