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.

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

From Page 15

on economic criteria (regardless of insurance status) with a possible cutoff at incomes of 2.5 times the poverty level.

The Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center’s medical clinic is overseen by Clinical and Nurse Manager Carolyn Garver RN, CNP who was Pennsylvania’s Nurse Practitioner of the Year in 2018. Currently the clinic has six family medicine specialists, two general internal medicine specialists, as well as subspecialists in the fields of cardiology, infectious disease, pulmonology, physical therapy, endocrinology, general orthopedics, spinal orthopedics, general surgery, audiology, optometry, ophthalmology, psychology/counseling and rheumatology that donate their time working on site. Multiple volunteers in nursing, pharmacy and clerical disciplines support this staff. There is also a nurse certified in diabetic teaching and a podiatrist will soon be joining the staff. Additionally, the clinic is associated with offsite consultants in general surgery, upper extremity orthopedics, gynecology, lower extremity orthopedics, family medicine, urology, otolaryngology, retinal disease, ophthalmologic surgery, hand surgery and dermatology who agree to see patients at no charge. The Catholic Charities Clinic partners with UPMC (especially UPMC Mercy and UPMC Saint Margarets), AHN, The AGH Department of Imaging, the Hillman Cancer Center, Global Links, Giant Eagle Pharmacy, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University School of Nursing, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, the Greentree Highfield Imaging Center, and Weinstein Imaging as well as multiple corporate and individual donors. The dental clinic offers both basic and advanced adult dental care. It partners with the University of Pittsburgh Dental School and is directed by Frank Parise DMD.

The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Physician, nurse, physical therapy, clerical, dental, and pharmacy volunteers are always welcome. Major needs currently are for gynecology and psychiatry specialists. Presently, the center is not involved in pediatric care, obstetrics, pain management or substance abuse treatment. The Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center also has a strong teaching mission. The physicians at the center teach basic and advanced physical diagnosis to first, second, and thirdyear University of Pittsburgh medical students. They also teach Pitt nursing students, Pitt Dental School SCOPE students, Duquesne University Nurse Practitioner students and graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Research initiatives involve the way to best deliver early detection cancer screening to indigent and minority populations. The Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center is a source of excellent care for needy people in our region, especially immigrants and minorities. Unfortunately, it is not as well known or as frequently utilized as it should be, but it’s getting there. It won’t remain Pittsburgh’s best kept healthcare secret for very long.

The opinion expressed in this column is that of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editorial Board, the Bulletin, or the Allegheny County Medical Society.