While measles and flu make the headlines, a small army of doctors and nurses contends with another public health ailment.
Its symptoms: high insurance deductibles and premiums; copays that add up; doctors who don’t take Medicaid.
The malady is lack of access to basic health care.
One solution lies in a kind of parallel medical sector: the free clinics on the North Olympic Peninsula, three of which belong to the Washington Health Access Alliance, the state organization of free and charitable clinics.
On any given week at the Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic in Sequim, at JC MASH — Jefferson County Medical Advocacy Service Headquarters — in Port Townsend and at VIMO, or Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics in Port Angeles, scores of patients receive care and advice.
In these offices, there are paid staff, but many more unpaid providers who share the belief that health care is a right, not a consumer product.
Sequim clinic
Take Dr. Kip Tulin, one of 11 volunteer physicians and nurse practitioners at the Sequim clinic.
He’s retired from a long career at Kaiser Permanente in Bakersfield, Calif., and is now the clinic’s volunteer medical director.
Tulin and his team see eight to 10 people come in on any given Monday or Thursday evening, when walk-in urgent care clinics are held.
The doors open at 4:45 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. If the waiting room becomes too jammed for the one provider working that night, clinic director Rose Gibbs has five more signed up to be on call.
“And they will come in,” she said. “That’s tremendous.”
Beyond urgent care, nurse practitioner Larry Germain runs the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon Chronic Healthcare Clinic for people coping with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and respiratory illness.
Patients see the same provider each time they come, which can make a huge difference in their health, Tulin said.
Even with the Affordable Care Act making health insurance available to people who couldn’t get it before, many still cannot foot the premium and copay bills, Gibbs said, adding that still others don’t want to get onto the state or federal “grid” at all.
Sequim’s clinic has a paid executive director and clinic director, a prescription assistance program and a wellness education program, all outlined on its elaborate website — and all the outgrowth of founder Mary Griffith’s clinic-feasibility research, begun 15 years ago this month.
Port Townsend clinic
JC MASH, by contrast, is a smaller, computer-free operation, now two decades old.
Dr. James K. Rotchford, the founding physician, sees people who are homeless, struggling with drug addiction or mental illness, or all three.
A handful of patients come to his walk-in clinic each Tuesday night, but rather than primary care, JC MASH’s providers offer people moral support and guidance to local resources.
VIMO
As for VIMO, it’s an appointment-only health center, recently moved to a larger building at 819 Georgiana St., down the street from its former location.
There, Executive Director Gary Smith and his team of volunteers and paid staff hope to see more patients than ever — which is saying something, since Smith reports VIMO’s 2014 patient count at 1,479.
Like its Sequim and Port Townsend counterparts, VIMO seeks to be a haven for those whose only other care would come after a long wait in the hospital emergency room.
VIMO will be among the participants at this Friday’s Project Homeless Connect.
The free event for people struggling with homelessness will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 W. Fourth St.
There, VIMO will offer flu shots as well as vaccinations for measles, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Affordable Care Act sign-up also will be available.
“We’ll be offering a regular medical clinic,” said VIMO development coordinator Zoe Apisdorf, adding that clinic manager Mary Hogan, nurse practitioner John Melcher and registered nurse Mary Sherwood will be working.
Dental care
Both the Sequim free clinic and VIMO see many people suffering from dental ills: abscesses, infections — and no insurance. The clinics can provide these patients with vouchers enabling them to see a dentist, get antibiotics or both.
Yearly, VIMO sees some 500 people suffering from dental pain, Smith said.
Staffer Susan Gile, known at VIMO as the Tooth Fairy, runs the dental health programs for children and adults.
VIMO hopes to add a dedicated dental clinic at its new location, Smith said, while Gile seeks to connect with more dentists who will accept Medicaid.
Dental help is something Mauria Lombardo, the clinic’s sole paid staffer, is working on, too.
“One of my current tasks is to see which dentists might be willing to do low- or no-cost service once a month,” she said.
Volunteers, donations
All three clinics survive on a mix of volunteer hours, donations from local people, grants and support from community agencies.
United Good Neighbors, local churches and individuals keep JC MASH afloat, while fundraisers, private donors and Olympic Medical Center support VIMO.
At Sequim’s free clinic, donations can appear in a variety of ways.
“At Christmastime, someone left two $100 bills in an envelope with a note that said ‘Thank you,’” said Pam Leonard-Ray, executive director of the Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic.
Even the most impoverished manage to give something, Gibbs added.
“I’ve had patients come back in a couple of months later,” she said, with contributions of $2 to $300.
“When you work because you have a passion to take care of people, the work is less hard,” Sequim’s Tulin added.
Like him, Gibbs is a veteran of large hospitals and has found that running this clinic is what her profession is all about.
“I came from the bureaucracy and the politics,” she said.
Devoting time to people, not insurance billing, “is why I went into nursing.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
