Perspective Perspective
SERVING THE UNDERSERVED (Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center celebrates its 15 year Anniversary) Michael G. Lamb MD Medical Director Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center Back in the 1990s, millions of Americans had no health insurance. As a result, access to health care was a real problem for many Americans, especially the working poor. In 1994, in cooperation with Dr. Bruce Dixon, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, Quest Diagnostics, Allegheny General Hospital, the Catholic Physicians Guild of Pittsburgh, myself and several volunteer physicians and nurses created some outreach programs in the inner city to provide preventive health care to Pittsburgh’s underserved communities. The volunteer doctors and nurses made use of local neighborhood churches and a mobile health care van to provide basic physical examinations, as well as screening programs for hypertension, diabetes, prostate cancer, and hyperlipidemia. When the Allegheny Health Network (formerly known as AHERF) collapsed, most of these programs also faltered, except for the hypertension and prostate cancer screening initiatives that were adopted and improved by the UPMC Department of Family Medicine under the direction of Dr. Jeannette South-Paul. ACMS Bulletin / March 2022
It was in 2002 that Dr. Ed Kelly, an orthopedist at Pittsburgh’s Mercy Hospital and Sister Pat Cairns of Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, decided to take things several steps further. They worked with Catholic as well as non-Catholic volunteers and the Diocese of Pittsburgh to start an initiative that eventually became the Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center. Dr. Kelly recruited multiple medical and dental volunteers to staff the center and he personally served as a volunteer medical director for over a decade. Once the fundraising, staffing, equipping, and remodeling processes were completed, the clinic officially opened its doors in 2007 (in what was formerly the Federal Reserve Building at the corner of Ninth Street and Liberty Avenue). Sister Carole Marie Blazina, one of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill and a nurse practitioner, functioned as the center’s first clinical director. The center immediately filled a dire need in our city. It was very busy and provided both primary and specialty medical care as well as extensive dental services. The Free Health Care Center has all the basics except a billing department. No one is charged any payment for services rendered at the Free Health Care Center. The original partners of the Free Health Care Center included
the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Highmark, UPMC, Marenick Dental Associates, Giant Eagle Inc., Duquesne University and the Mylan School of Pharmacy. According to Dr. Kelly, during the early years of its operation, the clinic saw between 3,000 to 4,000 patients per year. Dr. Kelly stepped down as the medical director about 5 years ago. He received several prominent awards in recognition of his efforts including the Catholic Charities’ Caritas Award and the John Heinz Award. The center continues to thrive and excel in its mission to provide basic and specialty dental services, preventive medical care, primary medical care and specialty medical care to those in need. More people in our region have health insurance benefits now in comparison to 2007 and yet a UPMC study in 2018 reported a little over 40,000 medically uninsured within the Pittsburgh city limits. Plus, having health insurance doesn’t necessarily equal good access to care or quality care (especially for the working poor, immigrants and minorities). Currently nearly 70% of the clinic’s patients are immigrants. Eligibility criteria are periodically reviewed and revised to ensure that those most in need have access to the center’s medical and dental services. Eligibility may soon be based only Continued on Page 16
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