Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Healthcare shortage
Healthcare shortage
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 20, 2009
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Gregg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
A nurse examines a patient at the St. Frances Cabrini Clinic of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit’s Corktown district. |
Detroit – People without health insurance who become sick can turn to one of several Church-related free clinics in the metro area, but chances are they will be turned away.
The clinics want to help, but their ability to help is limited – by the size of their facilities, the number of volunteers, their financial resources, or some combination of these.
"We have a capacity here. We can see only so many people, and we've been at our capacity the last five years," says Sr. Mary Ellen Howard, RSM, director of the St. Frances Cabrini of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit's Corktown district, just west of downtown.
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Staff and volunteers work in the St. Frances Cabrini Clinic pharmacy. |
"People are losing their jobs, and when they lose their jobs they're losing their benefits – or working without benefits. All of us who are safety-net providers are at the capacity, and the need is growing. We're doing all we can; I wish we could do more," she continues.
The clinic sees 150 patients a week, but Sr. Howard says they try to at least tell those they cannot accommodate where they might be able to get care.
The clinic's three-person paid staff is augmented by more than 100 volunteers. Primary medical care and prescription assistance are provided, as well as mental health care.
Although it is sponsored by Most Holy Trinity Parish, the clinic relies on the support of many donors outside the parish. "This is a poor, inner-city parish. The Sunday collection is less then $1,000," Sr. Howard says.
The Mercy Primary Care Center occupies a portion of the Samaritan Center on Conner Avenue on Detroit's lower east side. The center reflects the continuing commitment of the Sisters of Mercy to care for the area's poor after the closing of the former Mercy Hospital of Detroit.
The center caps the total number of patients it serves at 1,000, and has been at capacity for about five years. It periodically announces it will be accepting new patients on such-and-such a day, as vacancies open up.
"We just recently took 25 new patients, on March 4. We told callers we'd be accepting new patients on that day, and the vacant slots were filled within about seven minutes," says Aiisya Williamson, executive director.
She says Mercy Primary Care gets about 30 calls a day from people wanting to become new patients. And she adds that some non-Church-related Detroit clinics she knows of have seen their patient loads increase by 25 or 50 percent within the past year.
Pontiac residents can go to Fr. Pop's Clinic, which moved last year from its long-time home at Shrine of St. Joseph Parish to new and larger quarters on Wittemore near Woodward.
Named after Fr. Edward Popielarz, who was St. Joseph's pastor, the clinic was founded in 1974 by Dr. John Dorsey, a professor at Wayne State's Medical School who worked at Beaumont Hospital.
The clinic has about 25 volunteers – doctors, nurses, lab technicians and a receptionist.
"The services are all donated," says the clinic's director, Sr. Patricia Malone, RSM.
Fr. Pop's Clinic is usually just open on Wednesdays, but occasionally on Saturdays, and sees about a dozen patients a week. If she could secure the funding and the additional volunteers, Sr. Malone figures the clinic could see twice that many.
She says most of the patients are among the working poor, but adds that some are jobless or even homeless. "We take people who are uninsured or whose insurance coverage is so poor they can't do the co-pay and can't use it," Sr. Malone says.
While not a free clinic, St. John Community Health Center, situated in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul's Van Elslander Family Center, assists people who either are uninsured or underinsured for just $15 per visit.
"It's so hard with the economy, with so many people losing their insurance," says Karen Beger, director of the health center, which is just east of Detroit's Eastern Market area. "Some of it certainly is due to loss of jobs. But for others, companies are just not providing health insurance."
Beger says the clinic, run by Warren-based St. John Health, treats 20 to 25 people each day and has been around for about a decade. But with so many people in need of basic healthcare, they're not able to keep up with the demand. "As we've been open, every year there's been an increase in need and demand," she says. "Especially this year we've seen a dramatic increase in phone calls from people looking for care."
The community health center typically deals with chronic illnesses, and treats people from 18 to 64 years of age who can't receive government assistance with healthcare costs. They have one part-time physician and one part-time nurse, along with a pharmacist and a small staff.
Beger says the center networks with a handful of federally funded health clinics in the city of Detroit to refer potential patients. Still, there doesn't seem to be enough healthcare to go around, she says. Lately, the St. John clinic has even has received inquiries into their services from other parts of the state.
The challenge, she says, is to get people basic healthcare before they need a trip to an emergency room. "It's just trying to get as many people in to be seen, or else find them another place to go," Beger says. "The need is so much greater than one site can provide."
With the week of March 22-28 being Cover the Uninsured Week, Williamson says she hopes people will think about what can be done to meet the growing needs of uninsured persons during this economic downturn.
The Cabrini Clinic's Sr. Howard is blunt about what she thinks ought to be done. "We're not the answer. The answer is universal coverage for all our citizens, just as the other developed countries provide it for their citizens," she says.
Michigan Catholic reporter Joe Kohn contributed to this story.
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