SEQUIM — Dorothea Hover-Kramer has joined the board of directors of the Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic, where health care volunteers offers free care to the uninsured and underinsured.
“This exciting news comes practically on the heels of adding an executive director position to the clinic leadership staff,” said Margaret Preston, board president, in a prepared statement.
John Beitzel, an immediate past president of the board, became the clinic’s volunteer executive director in the summer.
Hover-Kramer has been a psychotherapist in private practice for more than 30 years. She combines her career as a psychologist with a background as a clinical nurse specialist.
Hover-Kramer joined the clinic’s wellness committee last summer.
She said she works to help people learn from their experience of pain.
“This concept aligned directly with the clinic’s idea of teaching people skills to manage their state of health and wellness,” Hover-Kramer said.
“Once we got the good doctor hooked, we knew she was an ideal candidate for our board of directors,” Preston said. “She’s also agreed to chair the wellness committee.”
Executive director
The addition of the executive director was prompted by an increase in patient visits since the clinic’s move to a new facility at 777 N. Fifth Ave., at the Fifth Avenue Medical Plaza, last year.
In particular, the addition of a chronic health care clinic increased the number of total patient visits by 30 percent in 2008, said Leslie Lauren, development director.
Said Preston: “The board anticipated that this dramatic increase in use of the clinic might divert the role of the clinic director, whose main responsibility is to schedule and supervise the health care providers, patient care, referrals, and records.”
The executive director manages the business aspects of day-to-day operation and provides organizational oversight, as well as building community partnerships with corporate, tribal, governmental, and charitable organizations.
“There’s a huge trend toward collaboration in the not-for-profit sector that’s being strongly encouraged by funders wishing to stretch the dollars they invest in community based organizations,” Beitzel said.
The clinic volunteers want to work together “with other community services to ensure that everyone in our community has access to quality health care,” Beitzel said.
The primary care clinic is open at 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday evenings. Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis. Examinations begin at about 6 p.m.
The chronic health care clinic is open on Tuesday. Patients are seen by appointment.
To make appointments, or for more information, phone the clinic at 360-582-0218.
