Manhattan Free Clinic on the Community Hour Show Episode - 289

We catch up with Rick Hernandez from Manhattan Free Clinic on a big year of growth, including a second location and thousands of patient visits. We also talk about what real healthcare access looks like, how new tech helps patients learn at home, and why Grow Green matters for funding patient care. 
• celebrating 20 years and honoring Dr Jim Reed’s foundational impact 
• opening a second clinic location near the hospital for easier access 
• offering sick care and comprehensive care on set days each week 
• removing barriers like transportation and bus fare for patients 
• doubling patient volume over six years to 1,600 people and nearly 6,000 touches 
• serving more uninsured patients after eligibility expands to 300% of federal poverty level 
• using touchscreen patient education tools and email follow-ups to improve understanding 
• explaining Grow Green match details and how donations go straight to patient care 
MHKfreeclinic.com is her website. 

GMCF

CFAs

Transcript

Sponsor And Segment Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:00

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 News Radio KMAN. We are back. The GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. Happy Monday, CFA Monday. And up next, we have whoops, I hit the wrong button on my chair. I sunk down a little bit, Rick. Rick Hernandez is here. Rick is with the Manhattan Free Clinic. Regular guests here. Hi. Dave Lewis, friend of mine. How are you, sir? See you, my friend. It's always my pleasure. You haven't changed a bit since the last time I saw you.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Four months ago, three months ago. Who told you that? Uh somebody that uh, well, their nose is growing. Uh-huh. Okay. So anytime that you can uh, you know, stroke my ego, I'm good with that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Good to know.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah. Good luck on being the receptor.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I wasn't going to say that.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Uh let's ask the viewers today.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Okay, good. Because we all know that I don't. And so, you know, every time I step in the studio, I feel like there's like 17 more gray hairs. Yes. Maybe. Well, yeah, I mean, you can't count those. In my beard. If you had 17. In my beard, sir. How are how are you, sir? How's things going with you? Oh, personal life, married life is just a joy. We are so giddy still. We're just having fun. And you are a lucky man. Oh, I am. I am. I get told that all the time, but she never gets told that she's a lucky gal. Never. Nobody. At the wedding, she looked amazing, but nobody talked about my brand new suit. No, no. It's always about her.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Were they purple? Were your shoes purple?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

No, the shoes weren't, but there's some purple you know, uh threads in the suit. Should we talk about what you do? I so I'd be honored to talk about what I do. I think it's a good idea. Because Rachel's over with the symphony, and she's like going, oh my gosh, is this what he's going to put me through?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

2025 was an amazing year for our clinic. Do you see how that transitioned? Well done, bud. 2025 was an amazing year for our clinic. We celebrated 20 years uh in business. What a wonderful celebration you had. Yeah, and it was a good celebration. Thank you, sir, for MCing that. That was it was amazing. We had uh opportunity to honor uh Dr. Jim Reed and uh his uh contribution to our clinic and and just a foundational contribution. Um we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Jim Reed and others that we were able to mention that night. And so pretty good food from Texas Roadhouse, I might add. Oh, that was a shameless plug for a discount next time. Okay. And uh did they do that for you? Did Texas Roadhouse do that? No, they give you a discount when you get a lot of because we're a nonprofit and they love nonprofits. Really? Okay. Yes. I highly recommend doing business with them as a fundraiser. Uh so that's where we're going next for lunch. Uh yes, you and I.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

All right, we'll get it.

New Location And Expanded Services

The Bus Pass Story On Access

SPEAKER_00 2:59

You and I. And it'll be on you again. So anyway, I work for a non-profit. Do I get the discount? Uh you will we will get the discount. Okay, all right. Uh so 2025 was an amazing year, Dave. I'm gonna tell you it was uh a year of growth for us. We in August, we opened our second location up at the north uh northwest side of town, sorry, southwest side of town, up by the hospital, and uh small footprint up there, but we're now in there two days a week and uh providing sick care on Mondays and then um comprehensive care on uh on uh uh one day a week on a Wednesday, or no, sorry, Friday. Uh Stephanie Grinnan's up there on that particular day, so she's seeing some of her patients on a regular basis up there now as well. And we're already seeing the fruits of our labor. One of the reasons why we wanted to go up there is to provide an opportunity for that side of town to get to our services. Uh, access to healthcare is really important to us, and providing any opportunities to level the playing field for uh those marginal individuals that have a hard time getting to our clinic uh is the way to go. And uh just last week I got a call uh from an individual. I was manning the phones down here at our downtown location, and an individual was due to be at the um uh location up by the hospital, and I call it our Kemble location, that's what we'll call it. And uh he was he was an elderly man riding a scooter from Garden Way apartments, and it was severely windy and very cold, very similar to yesterday. And he's like, Rick, I don't think I can make it over there today. And I said, Well, why don't you jump on the bus and take the out of bus and get over there? And he goes, I don't have a pass and I don't have the money for that. So the following day I drove up there to Garden Way apartments. I provided him for a couple passes and then brought in rescheduling for last Thursday down here at our uh downtown location, which he showed up there and brought a scooter in. And and I didn't realize that it was a motorized scooter, but it was like the skateboard type scooter, you know. And uh so uh, you know, he thanked me profusely for going the extra mile for him, but that's what we do. You gotta get the heart, don't you? Uh I I hope to think so. Um, but but that's what we do. We try to use benevolence as the motivation for uh the medical care that we get we do. Um I believe that it serves for better health outcomes that way. Yeah, yeah. Does Adibus stop at the new location? Adibus does stop very nearby there. Okay, and they they're only a block away from our Houston location as well. Right. Um let me talk about last year's numbers. Sure. In the six years that I've been there, we've doubled our patient population numbers. Uh last year we served 1,600 individual patients at a tune of nearly 6,000 touches. Uh that is double what we were seeing six years ago. And but we still have a long way to go. Uh estimated um uh opportunity for health care for those that do not have health care insurance and and uh live within poverty level is a tune of about 5,000 just in Riley County alone. Uh so we have a long way to go. But we're getting help from the KDHE. Kansas has always had an opportunity to expand Medicaid, but they have not done so. Uh so uh and they don't see that on the near future. So what KDHE has done is they're allowing us to serve individuals that used to be at 200% maximum poverty level, and now we can serve those that are at 300% federally federal poverty level. So that opens the window a little bit more for us that don't those individuals that don't have health care insurance. They can make another hundred percent of poverty level before they are disqualified for our services. Does that make sense to you? Because sometimes I just kind of convolute those.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

You just keep talking. You make more sense than I ever thought I could.

Patient Growth And Poverty Guidelines

SPEAKER_00 7:08

And yeah, so anyway, maybe we should change shares, change shares. Change when I was in when I was in second grade, I developed this SHCH problem and it's still with me at 65 years old. So don't ever get it. You don't develop that in Schule. In Schul, exactly. Don't ever ask me to say church shoes.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Okay.

New Tech For Patient Education

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Uh but anyway, you're I think you understand what I mean. Uh, you know, we're we are serving those individuals now that go up to 300% poverty level. So there's a whole nother number of demographic that we can serve now. And so we're really happy about that, and we're we're seeing the fruits of those those those changes as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I think one of the things, you know, the technology that you have in that new location just totally blew me away. Isn't that cool? Because that that's just like, oh my gosh, you can actually do that. I mean, the visuals that you can get off that touch screen, you know, to help diagnose or to help explain to a patient what that challenge is that they're facing. Exactly. And the diagnostic aspect I th that I suppose is just mind-blowing for the physicians.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, it really is. There's uh you know, there's a lot of uh information that we can send home with them without them putting it in their pocket. It could be waiting for them in their email. So it's hard to describe on the radio, but if you imagine a very large iPad mounted on the wall with a touch screen that's preloaded with all kinds of diagnostic videos, uh articles, um models that you can manipulate at in a 3D level where you can show the inner ear and where that inflammation is and what prescription you can write and how to take care of that. We can we can literally, while they're in there, show them that model, uh, download that video and send that information on how to treat that ongoingly, and it's waiting for them in their email box.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

And you know, if if you played around with AI, you would think that that's how that happened, but but no. No, it's not. That's all documented human interaction.

Grow Green Fundraiser And Matching Gifts

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Patient Point is the name of the company that downloads that and provides those services for us, and it's pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah. Pretty amazing. You know, no good uh you still have to have that personal eye-to-eye care and that interaction with your physician. But uh, you know, uh, I don't know about you, but if if I spend a whole lot of time with my doctor, the I only leave with part of the information. Uh this is this is information that's waiting for you when you get home as well. So it really completes the the whole comprehensive treatment package. We're still in the first quarter of 2026. What's new for Manhattan Free Clinic? Well, I don't know if you heard, but Grow Green's happening next month. I was gonna bring that up. Yes. Uh uh April 22nd. Thank you. Uh is when uh Grow Green is going to be, uh, just for your information. And uh we're participating in that again this year. It is our major fundraiser, uh, to be quite honest, as it is for a lot of nonprofits. Uh, you know, ongoingly, year to year, we seem to be doing better and better as we get the word out about the Manhattan Free Clinic. Uh, which, by the way, as a caveat, when you get that letter in the mail from me and it tells you about Grow Green and it gives you a a form that you can fill out to who you're going to send your nonprofit don't donations to. And I hope you send one to every single nonprofit donation on the sheet.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

There's a hundred. There's a hundred nonprofits in there. Are you in that, Rachel, now? Are you? We'll talk about the Grow Green match day with the symphony. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

So the um so the idea there is to make one check and and and designate where that money's going to go to. When you look at that list, a lot of people uh that have been around for a while look for Flint Hills Community Clinic. That is not where we are anymore. Although we're still that legally, we are uh on that list is Manhattan Free Clinic. So we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

I don't know if there's another clinic that's on the list. I don't know that either. But that may be something you look keyword clinic. Yeah, keyword clinic.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So your donation, your qualified donation is matched 50 cents on the dollar and uh it caps out at 7,500. We usually go well past that. So any donation that comes in after that$7,500 match just goes straight into our kitty, and we can use that to provide services for those that uh need it right there in our community. One in 20 of the individuals, one five in a hundred of the individuals that live in Manhattan or live in poverty level without health care insurance. That's pretty incredible. That's a pretty big number. Uh so that money goes directly toward patient care. None of it stays in the office, it all goes directly to patient care. So your donation is going to help provide healthy outcomes for an individual that don't have a medical home. Well played. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Anything else for 2026?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

No, that's about it, man.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Man, we've got a lot to talk about. Yeah. You always got something going on. You're doing great things down there.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Well, thank you. It's our pleasure to do so. And uh I likewise with your uh radio show here and and giving the uh people like us a platform to stand on and uh tell our story and don't shut up too. I don't I did not know you.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, we take this and edit it down. Felix is gonna grab it the the disc and put it up on the when are you gonna have the these posted? Tomorrow? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Good luck with that because we got CFAs tonight. Excellent. Rick, always a pleasure to have you on for oh, by the way, MHKfreeclinic.com is her website. Important information to have.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Correct. And on your radio sh uh uh community population. Um uh we are now broadcasting uh some commercials on there uh to tell people more about our clinic to raise us up and uh uh have a top-of-mind awareness when it comes to maybe your neighbor needs those services or maybe you need those services. Radio is still a powerful tool for the tools.

Website Plug And Closing Tease

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Absolutely. All right, Rick Rick Hernandez is his name, the executive director of the Manhattan Free Clinic. We have the debut of Dr. Rachel Dirks coming in the next segment. She is the orchestra director for the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra. We'll learn a lot about them. I've been to a couple of your concerts. I have. Yeah. So we're gonna learn more about that here on the GMCF Community Hour on News Radio K M A N.