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| Ginger Schnell treats a patient at the Johnson City Downtown Clinic. |
The Johnson City Downtown Clinic is now one of only three nurse-managed community health centers in the nation to earn the impressive designation as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.
The clinic – located on Fairview Avenue – is an affiliation of East Tennessee State University’s College of Nursing and has served as the main primary and preventive care source for more than 10,000 men, women, and children during the past 14 years. Most of the patients are homeless, uninsured, the working poor, or are migrant farm workers.
It is the only community health center recognized as a FQHC that is operated in conjunction with a university nursing school.
And, this new designation also means the number of patients being served will double in years to come. As an FQHC, the clinic will receive approximately $650,000 in federal support each year.
“Most of that money will go toward reimbursing the care we provide to patients who have no ability to pay,” said Dr. Mary Kay Anderson, executive director of the Johnson City Downtown Clinic (JCDC) and associate professor of family and community nursing at ETSU. “Nearly 75 percent of our clients have no health insurance and over half the kids we see are uninsured.”
In addition to the Fairview Avenue site, which last year saw 1,900 different patients, the clinic recently expanded to the Keystone Community Center where a complete range of primary care services for women and children are available, including Pap smears, prenatal care, mental health care, and referrals for dental care.
“With the expansion of the clinic, we will be focusing on three primary groups: the homeless, migrant workers, and the medically underserved in the community. Our immediate goal is to relocate to a large facility and bring most of the services back under one roof,” Anderson said. “That would allow us to increase our capacity and see more patients.”
“When the Downtown Clinic was first established, its mission was to provide health care to the homeless and indigent, but today it is an important safety net for the increasing uninsured and working poor population,” said Marcy Walker, chair of the JCDC Governing Board. “ETSU’s College of Nursing should be commended for their foresight and vision in creating this clinic.
“This funding will allow us to move to a larger facility that will better accommodate our needs. We are so limited in space that there are times when we have to turn people away.”
Both Anderson and Walker agreed this federal support could not have come at a better time. Initial funding for the center was made possible through grants, but those funds were only designated for start-up clinics and were not available for long-term operational costs.
Significant funding has also come from city and county governments, state funds, Mountain States Health Alliance, and individual and group donations, as well as patient fees. In recent years, the Downtown Clinic had become increasingly dependent on donations and community support, particularly as the number of clients being served continued to increase.
The clinic is part of the ETSU College of Nursing Faculty Practice Network, which includes nurse-managed health centers across the region that primarily serve at-risk and underserved populations. Last year, the network reported 10,528 client contacts.
For more information, contact Dr. Anderson at (423) 439-4051. |
