Florida Catholic | Medical Care For Uninsured

Area clinics and hospitals reach out to the uninsured

AMY FERRARA SMITH | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 12.07.07

PENSACOLA | From the outside, St. Joseph Health Clinic in downtown Pensacola still looks like a quaint turn-of-the-century house, welcoming guests with a wide front porch. But inside, patients line the parlor walls, waiting to see the volunteer doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists and social workers who offer their services to the city’s uninsured.

Dr. W. Richard Hooper checks Rene' Morton's throat for an infection on a recent visit to St. Joseph's Free Clinic in Pensacola. Morton lost her health insurance when her previous employer terminated her following emergency surgery. While she never expected to have to rely on the clinic's services, she is grateful that it is there to help her manage her acute hypertension.

PEGGY DEKEYSER | FC
Dr. W. Richard Hooper checks Rene' Morton's throat for an infection on a recent visit to St. Joseph's Free Clinic in Pensacola. Morton lost her health insurance when her previous employer terminated her following emergency surgery. While she never expected to have to rely on the clinic's services, she is grateful that it is there to help her manage her acute hypertension.

“There are 60,000 people who don’t have health insurance in Escambia County,” explained Dr. David Conkle, a retired heart surgeon and founder of the clinic. Dr. Conkle started St. Joseph Clinic in 2002 to care for people who can’t afford to pay for medical treatment. “About 60 percent of that group who don’t have health insurance are working,” he continued.

AccessEscambia, a nonprofit organization that has been studying Escambia County’s health problems for the past six years, recently discovered through a study that the number of uninsured and medically poor in the county is expected to increase to more than 90,000 by the year 2013. That number translates to one out of every four residents.

In Leon County, the numbers are also rising. According to Bill Phelan, co-chair of Tallahassee Equality Action Ministry, known as TEAM, and a physician’s assistant at the Veterans Affairs Clinic in Tallahassee, Mercer Consulting Group performed a study in April of 2006 that found 21,000 Leon County residents without health insurance.

“More and more employers are finding it hard to find affordable health insurance for their employees,” he explained.

Leon County offers two community clinics for the uninsured, Bond Community Health Clinic and Neighborhood Health Services. Both charge on a sliding scale based on what patients can afford. The Capital Medical Society also offers the We Care Network, which includes more than 300 physicians who donate their time for specialty care to uninsured patients in four counties.

Each week in Pensacola, St. Joseph Clinic witnesses this large number of uninsured patients. Whether they have simple cuts or serious medical conditions, the clinic takes them in. Located on the same block as St. Joseph Catholic Church, the clinic is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. For one dollar a year, it rents the building from the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, and the staff volunteers its time and expertise.

“The reason they’re here is because they enjoy helping others,” Conkle said. “It’s rewarding to give back to the community.”

One such person is Caffey Bell, administrative director of the clinic. Tucked away in a closet-sized room, Bell talked with enthusiasm about the clinic while two nurses prepared shots in one corner and a physician searched through medicine bins. Every so often, a volunteer poked his or her head through the ajar door to ask questions.

“This is a one-stop shop,” said Bell. She explained that volunteers not only give medical treatment, but they also hand out food stamps. “Some people come at 7 a.m. for coffee and peanut butter and jelly and to talk.” Her voice rose with excitement. “It’s like a coffee shop.”

Farther east, Bernidine Peter and her husband, Dr. Joseph Peter, started a free health clinic 10 years ago at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Crestview. It is open one day every three months.

“We ask that only patients who have no insurance at all come to see us,” explained Bernidine Peter, a dietitian.

On a daily basis, Peter works with her husband at his pediatrics office in Crestview. Even there, uninsured parents with sick children seek medical care.

“It is hard for us to say no to the kids,” she said.

Because medical insurance is expensive, Peter explained, many people cannot afford it. Yet, without insurance, medical bills are even higher, preventing the uninsured from having access to the proper care.

For those people who do have some type of medical insurance, the companies, continued Peter, select medicines and doctors for patients based on their health insurance plans. Many people affected by this are what she calls the “underinsured,” patients who do not have enough medical insurance to help pay their bills.

“Insurance is the only business in medicine that has a third party that dictates what medicine you take and who you see,” she said.

Peter and her husband have learned this at both their pediatrics office and the free clinic at Our Lady of Victory. At the clinic, a patient may seek care for anything from a cut to a suspicious lump in the breast.

“I saw a person who had had a heart attack and couldn’t go to the doctor,” said Bernidine Peter, emphasizing that the patient did not have enough money to pay for the medical visit. “He said it felt like a 300-pound gorilla was sitting on his chest.”

Many people have helped Bernidine and Joseph Peter in their quest to serve the needy at the free clinic. One such person is Roger Hall, former administrator at North Okaloosa Medical Center and current president of Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast. Because of Hall’s understanding, said Peter, Dr. Peter can send patients from the free clinic to the hospital lab for additional tests; the lab, in turn, will not charge the patients.

Sacred Heart Health System maintains four facilities that either accept patients with Medicaid, a government program that pays medical bills for low-income families, or help patients to qualify for Medicaid. These facilities include: Seton Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatric Dental Clinic, Pediatric Care Center and Mission in Motion, a mobile health unit that reaches out to the uninsured, poor and elderly.

“In the emergency room,” explained Mike Burke, public relations director for Sacred Heart Health System, “there is one out of every five people in this community who do not have health insurance.”

But the free clinics provide hope.

Bell, at St. Joseph Clinic, said that when a tornado swept across downtown Pensacola on Oct. 18, patients stepped onto the front porch to see the sudden change in weather. One patient suggested to another that they seek safety elsewhere.

“No,” he responded. “I’m going back inside. God’s in there.”

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Area clinics and hospitals reach out to the uninsured

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