Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
The Manhattan Free Clinic on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 200
The Manhattan Free Clinic has been providing free primary care for 20 years to uninsured residents living within 200% of the poverty level in Riley County, which has one of the highest poverty rates in Kansas. They're celebrating this milestone while expanding services to the new Community Accelerator facility on Kimball Avenue, which will improve accessibility for patients on Manhattan's west side.
• All services, including medications, are completely free through partnerships with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Memorial Hospital Fund, United Way, Via Christi's Dispensary of Hope, and Shepherd's Crossing
• Success story of Roger, a legal immigrant with diabetes, who received life-saving care when he unknowingly stepped on a nail that became infected
• The clinic employs bilingual staff to overcome language barriers for patients
• New presence planned in the Community Accelerator behind Via Christi, opening in August
• The Accelerator will house multiple services, including childcare provider training and workforce development
• Community support through Grow Green Match Day is critical as they expand services
• Find them listed as "Manhattan Free Clinic" (not Flint Hills Community Clinic) at growgreenmanhattan.com
Please support Manhattan Free Clinic during Grow Green Match Day to help us continue providing free healthcare services to our community's most vulnerable residents.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour as heard on NewsRadio KMAN the GMCF Community Hour. Rick Hernandez is in. Rick is here on behalf of the Manhattan Free Clinic. Hello sir.
Speaker 2:That is me, and hello, sir, welcome back my friend.
Speaker 1:Thank you, my friend, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that is me and hello sir. Welcome back, my friend. Thank you, my friend, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, tell us a little bit about what the free clinic does.
Speaker 2:Oh, man, you know. For those that don't know, manhattan Free Clinic, also known as Flint Hills Community Clinic Inc. Has been around for 20 years. We've been doing primary care for individuals that do not have health care insurance and live within 200 percent of poverty level. And if most of your listeners may not know, but riley county is, we're right up there, number one in the state poverty level plus percent poverty level, and a lot of individuals don't have health care insurance.
Speaker 2:That tie into those. So those are the two criteria that that, um, all of our patients meet. All of our services are free. All of that, all of our patients meet. All of our services are free. All of them, all of them. Does that include medications? That includes medications? Really yes.
Speaker 2:So I'm able to find those dollars through KDHE, through Memorial Hospital Fund, memorial Hospital Association Fund, kansa United Way contributions that individuals like you may write a check, coming up in Match Day. There's an opportunity for you to support direct patient care to our patients. So if they can't afford their medication, we establish a fund so that we can help them with those meds. Plus, we have a really nice partnership with Ascension, via Christi's Dispensary of Hope, just right around the corner from us. We send a lot of our individuals over there for free medications because if they're qualifying for our services, they're qualifying for theirs. And then we have a nice relationship with Shepherds Crossing. We are co-founded by Dr Jim Reed, and so we have a nice relationship with them too. If we can't afford to provide medication services, then they can help with those financials as well, Boy Jim Reed's done a lot of good things.
Speaker 1:He's done a lot of good things.
Speaker 2:Like I said, we're celebrating 20 years this year. I haven't got Jim Reed on the phone yet, but I'm going to get him to that celebration and we're going to celebrate him, I hope.
Speaker 1:So let's jump to the 20 years. Yeah, 20-year celebration. What are you doing for that?
Speaker 2:Oh boy, I would love to have just a gala, you know, celebrating this community and the support that it's given this clinic, this community and the support that it's given this clinic. You know, a lot of people don't know where we are because we're in the basement of 401 Houston, also known at Area Agency on Aging, and so a lot of people don't know, also known, by the way, as the building where they're digging a moat around.
Speaker 1:Well, there's that.
Speaker 2:But it's quickly becoming beautiful there and so a lot of people don't know where we are. So this is a great opportunity for us to establish a relationship with our community again, because out of sight, out of mind, so bringing our clinic to top of mind, awareness is really important to us. It's important in a lot of different ways all year long, but after 20 years of being faithful to this community, I think that's worth celebrating, and I can tell you thousands of stories of how we've helped individuals. I will tell you one a man named Roger. He is a legal immigrant from our neighboring southern border and he came to this country about five years ago. Roger's had a difficult time, lives in Manhattan for the last five years and probably his biggest hurdle is language, and that's getting easier. That's why we have a bilingual individual working in our clinic, so that we can help those patients that don't speak English.
Speaker 2:However, it took us a little while to establish exactly what Roger's health care needs were, but there were two primary he's hypertensive and he's a type 1 diabetic, so he's got high blood pressure and he's got sugar issues. So he's got high blood pressure and he's got sugar issues. So through our PAPS program, we got him on Lantus, which is you know what he needs for his diabetes. And then we started educating him on nutrition and exercise and got him set up on some medications for his hypertension. So his hypertension came down but his, his type one diabetic started directing, you know, his circulation in his, in his feet. So neurothopy set in. So long story short.
Speaker 2:Just a few months back Roger walked over to our clinic from downtown toward Aggieville and he was limping. And once we got down to the root of the problem, he had stepped on a nail and didn't know it, didn't even know it, didn't know it and it became infected, oh my. So we immediately got him up to Via Christi. He went into ICU for a few days, ended up having surgery. He lost his toe, had to relearn to walk again and establish himself on a walker for a few weeks.
Speaker 2:But Roger's doing great now. And you know my point is we're not the heroes in that story for Roger, but we're a place where Roger knew he can count on coming to, where you know there wasn't a language barrier, there wasn't a language barrier, there wasn't a transportation barrier. We even sent our interpreter to follow up with his surgeon and interpret there as well, they had some interpretation services, but you know we had availability there too. So my point is we've been there for a lot of people like Roger over the last 20 years and we plan on being around for a lot longer.
Speaker 1:Well, I know you said you have a lot of stories and a lot of people but that's a great example. This is going to be a big year for you. I mean, not only is it your 20th anniversary, but you've got some big news that's going to be happening up on Kimball Avenue.
Speaker 2:Right. So I think we talked about this on the radio before, but it's worth mentioning that somewhere in August, they're telling me, the community accelerator will open, which is right behind the hospital, right behind the surgery center. If you drive down Kimball you can't miss it. Right now it's skinned in green, but soon to be multicolored, and we're going to have a presence in there. On the community side of things.
Speaker 2:The Community Accelerator will house the Child Care Business Initiative, training individuals to be child care providers, which Kansas really needs. So it's a great concept and a great training center. Matc will have some education pieces in there. Workforce will be in there to establish workplaces for individuals. But we're going to have a small presence yet, a presence there for individuals that live on the west side that can't get downtown. Transportation is still an issue in the state of Kansas and no different in Manhattan, so we want to be able to serve that west side of town a little easier but also be there for the child care business initiative. So we'll have a sick provider on staff now and be able to provide direct services for those individuals that need us in the present. So we're really excited about it. Working out some of the details of what the schedule is going to look like, but I can't wait for it to open.
Speaker 1:We're really excited. You know we talked about this before we came on the show about what this looks like initiative, this accelerator will mean to our community and we probably have an idea of the impact that it will have, but really don't at this time, other than we think it's going to be a big deal.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a flagship, yeah, yeah, it's going to be the model for, I believe, the country. And so all eyes are on the state of Kansas when it comes to this business initiative and also, you know, the community accelerator as a whole. So I'm proud to be a part of it, proud to be asked to be a part of it, and I can't wait for it to happen. Kudos to the people that help write those grants and the vision for the community accelerator, for sure, and Greater Manhattan Community Foundation was a very large part of that. So kudos to them, vern and the gang.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean it took some people from within the community outside of the nonprofit world to come up with this concept and it's just. It blows my mind still thinking about what we are creating here.
Speaker 2:Well, our minds are not going to be blown yet. It's going to blow our minds in the future too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I'm excited about it, you know. This, I think, is one of the greatest community endeavors that I've seen here.
Speaker 2:For sure, and just one of many, of course, but it's one of the biggest for sure, and so you know, kudos to everybody. Is that that that made this happen? It's I just can't wait for it to happen, and that state support as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and a lot of local support and a lot of local ideas. You know, and when you incorporate, you know MATC as well and all the things that they're looking at doing there. And we had Jim Jeanette talking about that the other day, Speaking of community support, Dave.
Speaker 2:I'm going to direct us back to Grow Green Match Day. Yeah, how important is that to our community nonprofits and those account holders here that have a presence within our community. We really need that to happen, bigger than it's ever happened for us. This year. We're talking about expansion in a way, but we're also that comes with a price tag, and so community support is very important for the direct care of our individuals. We're a free service to our community. We're not selling widgets. We're a free service to our community. We're not selling widgets and we're not charging for our services, so we need a way to help pay for those services. So Grow Green Match Day is so important to us. We have a wonderful database out there that support our clinic every year. I will say that if you receive the list of nonprofits, we're no longer in the F category Flint Hills Community Clinic. We're in the Manhattan Free Clinic category, so look down the page. If you can't find the community clinic, we're Manhattan Free Clinic.
Speaker 1:And you can find that list at growgreenmanhattancom. Rick Hernandez, always great to have you.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's such a pleasure to see you, Dave. Thank you very much. Sight for sore eyes, sir.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's such a pleasure to see you, Dave. Thank you very much. Sight for sore eyes, sir. Oh, you're too kind. Maybe see you down here on the 22nd.
Speaker 2:I'll be here.
Speaker 1:Come down, make an appearance shake a few hands kiss some babies and stuff.
Speaker 2:Look for that skinny guy out there waving his hands. Oh wait, that's the skinny blow-up bill.
Speaker 1:Rick Hernandez, with the Manhattan Free Clinic here joining. Thank you for joining us on the GMCF Community Hour. Vern's going to be stepping back in. We'll bring you up to date on some other things that are happening in town and in the area. We've got some great community events. No-transcript.