Methodist family practice residents help clinic expand services

Neighborhood clinic blossoms

with helping hand from Methodist

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY DENNY ANGELLE

Good morning, Denver Harbor. This neighborhood on Houston’s east side wakes up early and goes to work and school. Somebody is cooking breakfast. As the sun puts a glow into the morning, it doesn’t take much to hear freight cars bumping around in the rail yard or the 18-wheelers roaring along nearby Interstate 10.

“Areas like Denver Harbor blossom when the people who live there put their energies back into the community. This is a real success story.”

AMetro bus hisses to a halt in front of Denver Harbor Clinic. The clinic is nestled in a shady neighborhood just two blocks away from a busy thoroughfare. You would think the buses would take that route, not this quiet residential street. Most of them do, but the Number 11 bus stops right here.

Inside the clinic, 6-year-old Elizabeth Treviño fidgets on the thin white paper of an examination table. A sore throat bothered this first-grader all weekend. So she is here with her mother, to see a doctor.

Elizabeth is missing the first hours of school. She likes the X-Men and a number game called “math-a-thon” and she would like to get to that. Dr. Jamir Mireles examines the little girl’s throat and gives her a prescription for the irritation and pain. The doctor warns April Treviño, Elizabeth’s mom, to keep an eye on the condition so it doesn’t turn into something more serious.

Then it’s off to class — Elizabeth to Raul C. Martinez Elementary school and her mom to the University of Houston-Downtown campus. A psychology major, April has a history test today.

Mireles pulls a folder from a pocket on the door of the next examination room. Another patient waits inside.

For the 28,000 or so residents of the Denver Harbor community, this clinic is the answer to their prayers. Before it was established, no physicians served this low-income, primarily Hispanic community. A group of neighborhood church pastors partnered with local businesses to establish the clinic in 1999.

Since then, it has grown steadily — and earlier this year The Methodist Hospital formed a partnership with Denver Harbor Clinic that will enable the clinic to serve more patients than ever before. Methodist’s family medicine practice, comprised of 17 family practice residents (doctors in training), utilizes the clinic as its sole family medicine clinic site. In addition to providing patient care, the practice has supplied funding and other assistance such as X-rays, immunizations and laboratory tests.

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1 Six-year-old Elizabeth Treviño discusses her symptoms with Dr. Jamir Mireles, who is a Methodist resident. 2 Deka Gray and her son Corey visit with

Dr. Mireles before Corey undergoes a sports physical. 3 Dr. Donald Briscoe, director of

Methodist’s Family Medicine Residency

Program, reviews a patient chart. 4 Dr. Mireles discusses a case with

Dr. Kent Lee, director of women’s health and maternity services at the clinic.

If patients need more extensive care — to deliver a baby, for example — the medical staff at the clinic has admitting privileges at Methodist. Patients frequently also go to Methodist for testing and other diagnostics.

“We are very lucky that Methodist partnered with us,” said Dr. Donald Briscoe, medical director of the clinic and director of Methodist’s Family Medicine Residency Program. “Their assistance has given us a boost that will enable us to see more patients than ever before.”

The clinic also is constructing a new addition to the current facility, with 10 examination rooms in a twostory structure. The additional space and Methodist residents will allow patient visits to jump from 7,500 this year to an estimated 11,000 by 2007.

When the new expansion opens in the spring of 2007, Briscoe says the current facility may eventually house a dental clinic and possibly a small pharmacy. “The Methodist Hospital’s presence is definitely allowing us to expand our services,” he added.

The current Denver Harbor Clinic building, a pleasant terra-cotta structure with a Southwestern style, was originally a cantina and sports bar that was frequently a trouble spot in the otherwise quiet neighborhood.

The clinic was the vision of local businessman Daniel Montez; not only did it offer much-needed health care to Denver Harbor’s families, it also gave the residents a focal point for redeveloping their depressed community.

Montez, now the clinic’s CEO, worked to get local churches and their pastors involved. Metro agreed to place a bus stop right at the clinic’s front door, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility in May drew visits from local dignitaries such as city council members Adrian Garcia and Carol Alvarado, and U.S. Rep. Gene Green.

“Areas like Denver Harbor blossom when the people who live there put their energies back into the community,” Briscoe said. “This is a real success story.”

From left: Denver Harbor CEO Daniel Montez; Methodist board members Jack Blanton and Connie Dyer; Methodist VP of Operations Cathy Easter and Houston City Council Member Adrian Garcia at the clinic expansion groundbreaking ceremony.

FAST FACTS

Denver Harbor Clinic is a private, nonprofit community health care center providing quality care to the residents and neighbors in the Denver Harbor community of Houston. Location: 424 Hahlo Street Houston, Texas 77020-3022 Web: www.hchcdenverharborclinic.org Employees: 17 full-time and 3 part-time

Patient encounters:

2005: 4,200 2006: 7,500 (projected)

Key dates:

1999: Denver Harbor Clinic opens, operating six hours a week in a temporary facility, annual budget: $60,000 2000: Hours expand to 16 hours/week 2003: Hours expand to 40 hours/week 2004: Permanent 5,600 square foot facility opens at the site of a former cantina 2005: Designation as a Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC) Look-Alike awarded, providing eligibility for enhanced Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement 2006: Annual budget: $1.2 million 1/1/06 – The Methodist Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program begins with six residents and one attending physician at Denver Harbor Clinic 7/1/06 – Residency program increases its presence at the clinic to 17 residents and four physicians as it makes the clinic its sole family medicine clinic site.

Mondays are usually the busiest days at the clinic. About 40 percent of all patients at the clinic are children.

Mondays are usually the busiest days at the clinic. About 40 percent of all patients at the clinic are children. Three or four senior residents typically see patients, then they return to a common doctors’ area to write up each case and have the diagnosis and any treatment approved by a supervising physician/family practice faculty member such as Briscoe.

Today, the other faculty member present is Dr. Kent Lee, a man with a number of titles at the clinic including director of women’s health and maternity services and coordinator of behavioral sciences.

He is examining and tinkering with a colposcope, an optical magnifying device used in obstetrics and gynecologyexaminations. The instrument was a gift to the clinic from Dr. Eric Haufrect, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Methodist.

“Across the board, Methodist has been supportive in every thing we’ve done,” Lee said. “We have been able to tap into much more than Methodist’s excellent reputation…they have enabled us to take this someplace we have never been before.”

Meanwhile, Mireles taps on the door of another examination room. Corey Davis, 14, is here for a routine physical before he can enroll in sports at his school. “Cross country, basketball, track…” he said, when asked what sports he’s interested in. He doesn’t know if he wants to be a sprinter or a long-distance runner.

The doctor gives Corey her approval to participate in sports. Corey’s mother, Deka Gray, said this is the first time they’ve come to the Denver Harbor Clinic. Briscoe gives her a short survey to answer questions about the service she received. She hands it back, favorable check marks all down the line.

“This place is beautiful,” she said. “A real lifesaver for me, that’s for sure. We will be back, I guarantee it.”

PHYSICIAN SUPPORT

Dr. Miguel Quiñones — serves on the clinic’s board of directors

Dr. Richard Robbins — collaborating with the clinic to develop research projects

Dr. Eugene Toyand Methodist OB/Gyn residency program — assisted in the development of the clinic’s prenatal care program

Dr. Robert Jackson — consulted with the clinic’s medical staff to establish process improvements