THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410040140
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 176 lines
HEALTH INSURANCE isn't something Terie Faughtner thinks about until she needs it.
And she needed it several weeks ago, when a skin rash began spreading up her arms.
``I just moved here from California and I don't have a job yet,'' the 24-year-old woman explained. ``I don't have insurance and I don't have the money to pay a regular doctor.''
Instead, Faughtner just let the rash go until it became so irritated she grew frightened. Not knowing where to turn, she sought help at a Navy clinic but was turned down because she wasn't a dependent. Someone at the clinic, however, told her about a church near Old Dominion University where Norfolk residents are treated for free each Monday night, and beginning today, each Thursday night.
It's name: The Community Adult Clinic of Norfolk.
Even though she was apprehensive, Faughtner came to the clinic at the corner of 38th Street and Bluestone Avenue in Lamberts Point because she was desperate.
What she found were freshly painted examining rooms, friendly doctors, nurses and receptionists; free care and little red tape.
``This isn't like most places where you have to wait for hours if you can't pay,'' said Faughtner during a follow-up visit to the clinic for treatment of a skin fungus.
``The first time I came here there was a lot of people waiting, but it didn't take long for someone to see me,'' the petite woman recalled. ``I was only here about an hour. I felt so comfortable because everyone here was so nice.''
Treating people with dignity and respect are as important at this volunteer-run clinic as providing quality health care, contends the one paid staffer.
``People who have not been able to afford health care and have had to rely on the systems are often treated just like another cow on the cattle prod,'' said Linda Oakley-Clancy, the registered nurse who serves as the clinic's executive director. ``We make these people feel like they're not just another number walking through the door.''
For the last year, Oakley-Clancy and a band of volunteer physicians, nurses medical assistants, lab technicians and clerical staff have been working together to ``scratch the surface'' on one of the nation's most vexing problems - how to deliver health care to the medically indigent.
``You have to start someplace,'' explained volunteer Rachelle Williams, a certified medical assistant. ``If you start out by scratching the surface, at least everybody will get an idea of what it's going to take to make things better.''
Each night the clinic is open, volunteers from the community spend four hours caring for ill Norfolk residents. Most of the patients are homeless or the ``working poor'' who can't afford doctor bills or health insurance and are not eligible for Medicaid. Without the clinic, many would eventually end up in the emergency room when chronic health problems become severe, said clinic board member, Angela Scott.
``It's devastating to the patients and very costly for society,'' she said.
The clinic was created in 1993 with $75,000 in seed money from the Virginia Health Care Foundation after a Virginia Senate resolution charged cities and private enterprise with looking for ways to fill the health care needs of all its citizens.
In Norfolk, nine agencies, including the city's public health department and its four hospitals, formed a public-private partnership. Each agency contributed $7,500 to fund the free clinic. They also provided some in-kind services, such as equipment, marketing assistance and laboratory support. The FoodBank of Hampton Roads, for example, pays any prescriptions issued through the clinic by an arrangement with Revco Drugs.
Oakley-Clancy was hired as the clinic's administrator last August. Although autonomous, she actually works for Norfolk's public health department.
Until June, the clinic operated out of the Family Planning facility on Princess Anne Road. But when Family Planning did not renew its lease on the building, the clinic had to look for new quarters.
Like a cavalry stumbling on an embattled stagecoach, members of the First Baptist Church of Lamberts Point found out about the clinic's plight and offered free space.
``It was an answer to our prayers,'' said Oakley-Clancy.
The partnership was also an answer to the church's prayers, said Rev. Anthony C. Paige.
``I wanted this clinic to be in our community,'' he explained. ``One of the problems we have is that most of the people who come to this black church are sick and do not have health care. They do not see physicians until they're at a critical stage.
``We have a building available here in a community that needs health care and so it's a natural partnership.''
Although the clinic now has a new home, its continued existence is still in doubt. Monies run out Dec. 31, 1994, and a new source of funding is still being sought, said Scott, vice president for patient services at DePaul Medical Center. In July, the clinic incorporated in order to secure not-for-profit status and begin fund-raising activities, she said.
``Norfolk has a need for this type of clinic that is exceptional,'' Scott noted. ``Even though we're seeing 30,000 people a year (at DePaul's clinics) . Norfolk General is seeing it equally. This community needs this clinic.''
The other challenge to the clinic's existence is in finding enough volunteer physicians. So far, about 40 physicians have volunteered to work at the clinic.
A lack of volunteer physicians ``is what is standing between us and being fully operational,'' said Scott. ``We'd hoped to be open every night and on the weekends. Once a week just doesn't fill the need that's out there.''
``Originally, our goal was to serve as a portal of entry,'' explained Oakley-Clancy, ``to see someone one time who was not in the system, who didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford to pay for care, and put them in with a physician who was part of our network. This physician would then become their doctor.''
That goal had to revamped, she said, because not enough physicians have volunteered to take clinic patients into their practices.
``We're not having a problem with specialty physicians,'' Oakley-Clancy said. ``We're seeing a lack of primary care physicians. The physicians are really not for follow-up care.''
In spite of its financial and staffing problems, clinic organizers plan to do as much as they can. Beginning in September, volunteer nurses will man the clinic on Thursday evenings from 6 to 10 p.m. to monitor chronic problems like hypertension and diabetes, handle follow-up appointments and conduct classes on a variety of health conditions.
``We have some very committed volunteers, who believe strongly in what we're doing,'' said the clinic coordinator Oakley-Clancy. ``There's such a high energy level here.
``I've been a nurse for some 20 odd years but I've never felt so rewarded by what I'm doing as I do here. You know you are really helping someone.''
``Whether you're from the middle class or the poor class if you don't have any money, you don't have any money,'' added Dr. Bill Robinette, a physician with Norfolk Diagnostic Clinic who volunteers at least once a month at the free clinic.
``Before I went to medical school, I spent three years in blue-collar jobs and my wife and I had no medical insurance. It was scary. So I'm very sympathetic to these people.
``Now that I'm a doctor . . . with all the rewards that profession affords me . . . I want to give back to society. It's my obligation,'' he said.
``As physicians, we all owe something back to our community. This is a place where you can really make a difference.'' MEMO: AT A GLANCE
The Community Adult Clinic of Norfolk, 38th Street and Bluestone
Avenue, is open Mondays and Thursdays from 6 to 10 p.m. Medical needs
are met. There is no fee for services.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo on cover by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Dr. Bill Robinette, one of 40 doctors who volunteer to work at the
clinic, listens to Donna Jasper's heart. Jasper broke her ankle last
spring but it hasn't healed properly.
Staff photos by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Nurse Patricia Schroeder, left, and Linda Oakley-Clancy, executive
director of the clinic, confer on a medical matter. ``We make these
people feel like they're not just another number walking through the
door,'' says Oakley-Clancy.
Rahul Gupta, a student at Eastern Virginia Medical School,
volunteers his services at the clinic. Here he checks the blood
pressure of Patricia Williams.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Dr. Julie Damman examines patient Kathy Kelleher at the clinic
located in First Baptist Church of Lamberts Point. Money to run the
free clinic will run out in December and a new source of funds is
being sought.
Volunteers work at remodeling a portion of First Baptist Church that
now houses the clinic.
Nurse Sylvia Canada takes the temperature of Terie Faughtner, 24,
who had a skin rash.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Dr. Bill Robinette checks Terie Faughtner, 24, for a skin rash.
Robinette volunteers at least once a month at the free clinic.
KEYWORDS: FREE CLINIC HEALTH CARE by CNB