Health clinic may be forced to close if needs aren't met

Sandy McCoy has volunteered at the Collin County Adult Clinic in Plano for more than seven years, but lack of funding may cut her time with the nonprofit short by July if the indigent healthcare provider can't find the money to fill its $50,000 deficit.

"We have just met this past week and we are facing even more financial challenges this year to the point that we may run out of money sometime this year," said McCoy, board of directors president for the Collin County Adult Clinic. "The hospitals have been trying to help us with donations, but an appeal for donations to the general population of Collin County would also help to secure our future."

What started from humble beginnings out of the back of an automobile 10 years ago has become a necessary entity of survival for many residents throughout the county, particularly those living in Plano. Today, the clinic serves more than 500 people per month, and has expanded its outreach with two locations , one at K Avenue and Park, and the other on the west side of town off 15th Street.

Specializing in providing primary care and medications free of charge to indigent residents of Collin County, the clinic relies on donations and grants. Despite the need, both locations are only open a couple of nights per week, and have not been able to expand their hours due to funding problems, as this past year has been especially challenging, McCoy said.

"We do a great job of keeping many people out of emergency rooms and helping to give them a better quality of life," she said. "There are so many services we want to provide. Many people think we don't have an indigent problem but all have they have to do is walk over on the east side, but it's on west side too."

One of the other goals the clinic has is to open up a women's clinic, because the Women's Health Clinic of McKinney and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital at Plano's clinic were both shut down earlier this year, McCoy said.

"Really, Planned Parenthood is the only place they can go," she said. "We are funded a lot from the Catholic churches, so that's not an option for us."

Because of instances like this, Plano has really become the last resort for free health care in Collin County, said John Ernst, Adult Clinic executive director.

"The county growing so rapidly, people don't realize that when it is growing everything grows, the good, the bad and the indifferent," Ernst said. "There are people in need and that will just continue to grow."

The clinic asks for donations upon each visit but will see patients who cannot afford to donate.

Supported in part by city and county funds, the clinic is primarily supported through donations from hospitals including the Medical Center of Plano and Texas Presbyterian Hospital at Plano. Local churches such as St. Andrew United Methodist Church, St. Mark's Catholic Church and Chase Oaks Church also provide the clinic with the financial support it needs to survive; however, demand has surpassed supply over the past couple of years.

But money is not the only issue the Adult Clinic faces today. Manpower is also another need that must increase with population growth, Ernst said. On a Thursday night alone, the east side clinic sees, on average, 80 people in just three hours.

"The issue for us right now is that we need volunteer doctors, medical providers, nurse practitioners and physician assistants," he said. "We have two or three medical providers when we need four or five."

Although the clinic recently received an $80,000 federal grant to begin the process of becoming a community health center -- a status that could transform and expand the clinic into a full-service provider that would be open during business hours -- the grant will not be any good if it can't come up with the $50,000 the clinic needs to get through the next six months, Ernst said. Such funds are needed to build up the clinic's pharmaceutical reserves, an expense that accounts for roughly a third of the clinic's $350,000 to $400,000 annual budget.

With 10 percent of its patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses, from diabetes to hypertension, a visit to the clinic would seem superfluous without the appropriate medications to go with it.

"By the time these patients get to us, most of them haven't been to a doctor in 10 to 15 years," Ernst said. "They don't have any insurance so they need medications and they need them right away, and they also need to be tracked over time. If we don't give them that medicine, they won't be able to afford it [anywhere else]. These are people with not many other places to go."

Current Rating: 4 of 1 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...