Support building for free clinic in Yelm
 

More than 40 people expressed their support for forming a free medical clinic last week in Yelm.

The gathering, held Feb. 1 at Yelm Emanuel Lutheran Church, included church leaders, retired nursing assistants and concerned citizens.

The turnout was surprising for those who met about six weeks earlier to float the idea of a free clinic in Yelm.

“It blew me away,” said Dr. Bill Elledge, who worked in Yelm from 1979 to 2007. “I expected 25 or 30, but that was pretty gratifying.”

A key to the success of a free clinic is patience, said Jane Jones, a consultant from Empowering Community Healthcare Outreach, or ECHO.

“To some extent, it doesn’t take that long to start a clinic,” she said. “However, if you want that clinic to be sustainable, you have to go through the steps.”

“There have been some clinics that open in five or six months and I’ve seen some clinics open in 12 to 18 months.”

ECHO helped launch charitable clinics in nine states — California, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.

According to the Washington Free Clinic Association’s website, there are free clinics in 15 cities, the closest being in Olympia.

In a handout distributed during the forum, Jones outlined three phases of clinic development work.

Phase one is the environmental scan and business plan, requiring a planning team to be formed as well as environmental, legal and operations committees.

In phase two, the clinic’s governance and operations is established — a clinic board of directors, a site committee, communications committee and finance committee are then formed. All of the legal and environmental work is completed in this middle phase.

The opening of the clinic takes place in phase three.

“I think the biggest thing that happened is that we all came away with an understanding what it takes to lay the groundwork,” Elledge said. “There’s a lot of work that has to be done before the doors can be opened.”

Jones said the more time consuming steps are found in the second phase of developing a charitable clinic.

“A lot of people don’t find the legal work very interesting, or the environmental scan, which is part of a larger business plan,” she said. “If that’s the case, then that (second) phase can drag on for a long time.”

But the feeling after the Feb. 1 meeting is positive with the enthusiasm shown by those in attendance and the skills Jones said each of them could bring.

“There were varied interests around the room, including people who could see themselves as patients in the clinic, as well as people in the medical community, the business community and the social service community,” Jones said.

“A wide variety of interests in the meeting bodes well not only for the start up of the clinic, but the sustainability.”

“I truly have never seen a community meeting that large and that varied in their skills.”

Now working as a hospitalist at Capital Medical Center in Olympia, Elledge said his recent experiences have lead to a sense that there is a need in the Yelm area.

“We get a fair number of admissions from Yelm and certainly a fair number of admissions from people who have no health insurance,” he said.

While helping start Yelm Family Medicine, there were a number of patients who came in who had little to no health coverage, Elledge said.

“We do see those folks and there’s been a distinct increase in the number of admissions of uninsured patients and patients that are ill because they didn’t get the medical care that they needed earlier.”

Elledge said he acquired some supplies, including four exam tables, three more tables that can be used for exams, desks, waiting room furniture and more.

There is also discussion about using the former Yelm Family Medicine building, which currently sits vacant on Cullens Road.

“I don’t think that clinic building is the only option for housing a free clinic,” Elledge said, who owns the property and has it listed for sale.

While plans are pitched and brainstorming continues, Elledge said people who want to be involved in forming a free clinic can learn more information on the clinic’s Facebook page, or by sending an e-mail to Elledge at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

“Right now we’re a little unclear when our next meeting is,” Elledge said. “We need to get these committees formed and functioning.”

“We’re going to have to wait and see when that happens.”