City Mission expands health services with help of Centerville Clinics
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Exam room inside City Mission’s clinic building
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Dr. Daniel Holt, medical director of Centerville Clinics, speaks on Wednesday during a gathering at City Mission to mark the two nonprofits’ collaboration.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
City Mission’s drug-free pain clinic is staffed by volunteers.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
City Mission’s chief operating officer Brian Johansson speaks on Wednesday during a brief ceremony marking the new collaboration between the Mission and Centerville Clinics.
Proper medical treatment isn’t a guarantee for Americans. But for the people like those Leah Dietrich works with – those without stable housing and employee insurance plans – the financial and administrative obstacles can be almost insurmountable.
“Many of our 160 residents on campus come to us with a myriad of health issues – everything from diabetes and heart disease, through cancer,” said Dietrich, who is director of resident programs for City Mission in Washington. “We’ve had residents, through partnerships and collaborations like this, find out what those health issues are and finally address them.”
Dietrich spoke on Wednesday during a gathering at the faith-based nonprofit’s medical clinic, located on Strawberry Way. The occasion was the recent partnership between City Mission and fellow nonprofit Centerville Clinics, which offers health care to patients at locations throughout Washington, Greene and Fayette counties.
About a month ago, following lengthy discussion between the two organizations, Centerville Clinics began offering primary care on the downtown campus.
Residents of the mission facilities can visit the clinic every day of the week. Previously, volunteer physicians were available during clinic hours once a week at the City Mission campus, which employs a staff nurse.
“In the past, if somebody had an issue, the nurse would try to deal with it, or they’d go to the hospital,” said Brian Johansson, chief operating officer for the mission.
The group operates men’s and women’s shelters. Last year, it opened a separate shelter for veterans.
Johansson said some women at that shelter bring their children with them when they leave abusive relationships or come from being homeless. Sometimes, their kids haven’t seen a pediatrician before.
“To have that on our campus for them is a huge benefit,” he said.
Virtually all clients of the mission qualify for government health care benefits of some kind, so Centerville Clinics works with the patients on billing those agencies. In very rare cases – “probably 1 in 500,” Johansson said – residents don’t receive those sorts of assistance, there’s a “sliding scale” for pricing their care.
“Nobody’s turned away,” he added.
Construction of the on-campus clinic building was completed two years ago. It holds several exam rooms and a waiting area, among other features. Separately from what Centerville Clinics offers there, volunteers run a drug-free pain clinic once a week.
Dr. Daniel Holt, the clinics’ medical director, said his view of the patients he sees has changed since he started his career working with the poor and underserved. He said he used to see himself as “reaching down” to help those who were “less than” he was. But at some point, he realized he’d gotten where he was “not because I’m a swell guy,” but because of the help and encouragement he got from those around him.
“So when I look at the folks that we care for here, I don’t ever want it to be looked at as a ‘less than,'” Holt said. “I want it to be, we’re walking alongside them.”