Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Manhattan Free Clinic on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode 329
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We trade birthday jokes with Manhattan Free Clinic executive director Rick Hernandez, then get into the real story behind a big relocation after 21 years in a basement space. We break down what the new College Avenue location changes for patient access, clinic capacity, and partnerships that fill gaps like vision care.
• the decision to move after water migration issues reduced usable clinic space
• the new address at 1133 College Avenue in the medical plaza
• the jump from three exam rooms to seven and what that does for patient flow
• bringing patient-facing technology into every exam room
• keeping chiropractic care and physical therapy more efficient with a dedicated room
• collaborating for low-cost vision care and using grant support when patients cannot pay
• connecting health care to social determinants like food, housing, education, and resources
The website is MHKfreeclinic.com, building A, and uh at 1133 College Avenue.
Sponsor And Segment Setup
SPEAKER_01Philanthropy 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 at the GMCF Community Hour with a guy that's just busting with enthusiasm today because he's got some great things to talk about today. He is my birthday twin. We both celebrate a birthday on the same day.
SPEAKER_00That is correct. Man, you are getting old. And you know our. Let's advertise for you a little bit. You're having a roast.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just a little party. No, no.
SPEAKER_01Just a little party.
SPEAKER_00I can't make that roast because I have other birthday responsibilities that day. But I gotta tell you, you are looking for brutal. You're looking great. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, you're not you're you're not in any kind of better situation.
SPEAKER_00I'm in shorts and a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_01You um I don't have some.
SPEAKER_00I see that.
Birthday Banter And Guest Intro
SPEAKER_01Rec Hurdle is his name. He is the executive director of the Manhattan Free Clinic, and I understand you expired a lot. I mean, you had expiration issues last week.
Why The Clinic Had To Move
SPEAKER_00We did, we did. Uh, you know, we did not see patients last week because we were busy loading things in trucks and our own personal vehicles and just hauling things up to our new location. Let me just start by saying that we've been in the basement at 401 Houston, Suite C, for 21 years. Really? That was the old post office there. That is correct. 21 years. Uh Julie Gover Walters, who is the uh director of the Area Agency on Aging, is our landlord. And I can't not express the gratitude that I have for her and her staff. Uh, I've been there for seven years, and uh, there are certain people I just like to stick in my pocket and take with me, but I can't afford that. But um, they have been just amazing, just amazing. Why are we moving? Well, uh, quite honestly, um that building is getting older, and uh there was some water um migration issues on the corners of the building and were coming into uh it was coming into our area. Um three different construction companies, one professor from K State came in and tried to determine exactly what was happening. It was really odd, it is really odd, that this water is it's going through this stone that is in the walls of that basement area of the clinic, is growing some sort of kind of like Did you walk out the door every day and think you got to get tested for mold? Yeah, well, we did get tested for mold, and and there was no issues there. Did I need to be tested for old? Yes, uh probably so. I said mold, not mold. Um but you know, God bless them, they did everything that they could to try to figure that out. But are slowly through time in the last year or so, it's just kind of shut down one room after another. So it was uh writings on the wall, we can wait and and try to figure it out, and hundreds of thousands of dollars later figure that we still have to move. So we just kind of pulled the trigger and went.
SPEAKER_01Well, very fortunate to have had the facility there as long as you had it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure.
The New Location On College Avenue
SPEAKER_01Now tell us about the new digs.
SPEAKER_001133 College Avenue. It's at the um medical center where all the physicians are. Really? Uh building A, right on the ground level. When you walk in, we're to the right. And uh Adibus brings our patients right up to almost to the door. Um, pretty incredible space. We looked for months after months after months, trying to find that space that we can either build into or just move into. And this one opened up and and was a great opportunity for us. And so we've been moving out of the basement into that ground level area for uh a couple weeks now. So um is there an increase in square footage? Increase in square footage. We we have seven exam rooms instead of three. Oh my. So that's pretty incredible. And uh, you know, remove the flooring and paint the walls and run the wires and move the computers and and uh purchase new some new equipment. Um, we are literally one stoplight away from the accelerator location where we have a second uh location. So that kind of enters into uh a little bit of um of uh quandary also decision-making process. I sat on the board with the accelerator as a partner in the accelerator with the clinic, and um they have been exceptionally good to us as well. Um I did let them know that our intent to vacate is is coming about 60 days down, but we
More Space And Better Patient Flow
SPEAKER_00they are working on some financing that could bring us back into the mixed with uh a grant. Uh so we kind of left that open, uh, no hard move out date, and uh just kind of looking to serve uh there at the that location as well, if that if we can afford that down the road.
SPEAKER_01The accelerator location just totally blew me away because of the technology that you apply. Is that consistent with what you have at the very good location in building area?
SPEAKER_00Yes, we moved a lot of that uh out of our uh basement location into uh our our college location, and now we have added two. So all of that point patient point um uh interactive devices are going to be on every wall of every exam room.
SPEAKER_01So it seems like this is a very forward-thinking clinic. How how do you think you compare to a lot of other clinics in in communities our size?
SPEAKER_00Well, we are a uh sponsored by the KDHE and uh City of Manhattan to create access to health care. We're a safety net clinic, community-based primary care clinic. And so it's our job to forward think. Um we have not uh expanded Medicaid, uh, so we have to try to capture as many individuals and bring them into uh quality health care that no or low cost as much as possible. So we're always looking for that opportunity to create access. That's why I'm excited about this space that we have. So uh, you know, after a year, almost a year of looking for a place to go, um, this popped up, and I'm like, wow, what a great opportunity to be right smack dab. That's an old expression, you remember that. Right smack dab in the middle of medic our medical plaza, where all of our um all of our resources that we collaborate with for our patients are right there. So it's a god thing.
SPEAKER_01That's good to mean to your patients to be able to have that accessibility.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. I you know, uh transportation is always an issue. So transportation to the clinic is is great if we can get 'em into um a uh a referral source on the same day. Uh they're so close by they could probably walk across a few parking lots and get to that to that access or just head up to the hospital, which is a you know, literally a stoplight away.
SPEAKER_01Sounds like a perfect situation for you.
SPEAKER_00It's a God thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean we couldn't have we couldn't have found it. Actually, I uh long story short, I stopped by the Merck building because I'd I'd heard that that was available, and I thought, what a great place to put several agencies for our our public and create a multi uh multi-use facility, and uh made a phone call uh to Brandon Lundine, Brady Lundine, and uh he says, Oh wow, that would be great, but it's gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and what I'm like, you had me at great, but and then lost me. He goes, Why don't I just start searching for you? And after you know, many months, he finally just called and said, Hey, I have this great opportunity for you. Uh Freedom, uh mental health was in that location, and they expanded to the point to where they wanted to find a really big space for them to fit into, and they're still expanding. So we were uh we we were afforded the opportunity and uh took advantage of it.
SPEAKER_01Does this mean you'll be able to provide more additional and newer services? Quite possibly, yes.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm sure you're number seven, exam room number seven is a double-sized room, so we're adding our chiropractic care and our physical therapy care in the same space. So they don't have to come in and set up and use a normal exam room in order to facilitate those patients. So while we're not really adding services, we're making those services more uh uh uh accessible and more efficient for our patients. Uh the thing that I really like about uh this space is we can we can line up six patients at a time versus three. So our providers that spend uh a couple hours a week in our uh clinic donating their time can see more patients in the uh same period of time. Uh so they're they have a quicker turnover with our patients. What about
Vision Partnerships And Clinic Without Walls
SPEAKER_00vision and dental care? Vision is always an issue. However, we uh we're always looking for those agencies out there that are willing to collaborate with us at a low cost. And so we were able to reach out to Success Vision Express down on Third and Blue Mont, and uh they are seeing our patients with a full exam and a diabetic exam, if needed, for about 89 bucks, which is about a third of what the normal cost would be in a in a a regular um uh uh eye care uh facility. Uh we ask our patients to to help with that, but if they can't, Memorial Hospital Association grant uh is direct services money that can go directly to that vision care. So while we're not doing it inside our facility, we have that facility that's willing
Nonprofits And Social Determinants Of Health
SPEAKER_00to collaborate with us at a low cost, and that's our Clinic Without Walls program.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of the things, and and you weren't here in the studio when Verna and I talked about this, today is National Nonprofit Day. And and so you think about all the different nonprofits that work together, yeah. You know, especially in this field of health care.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And and fulfilling those community needs and those personal needs, how how blessed are we?
SPEAKER_00Oh, tremendously. Um, you know, from a healthcare perspective, social determinants of health, uh, you know, i uh is a big it's a big thing. If you don't have access to health care, that's one thing. If you don't have access to good food, that's a whole nother thing, and that's a trickle-down uh effect on your health. Uh no roof over your head, poor health care. No oral health care, poor body health care, and so on and so on and so on, even to the point to where if you don't have good entertainment that's affordable and and good ways to spend your time. Don't forget the educational aspect. Knowledge is power. And so um, you know, every time that we uh send a patient out to our agencies, we always try to connect the dots. Even on our website, I have a resource page for our patients and our referral sources so they can take a look at and how to connect with uh the breadbasket or or the library, uh, which is a huge resource for uh individuals that that need a place to to find information.
SPEAKER_01The unfortunate thing about this show is we're limited on time. Anything else that we haven't covered that you got to do.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, there's a multitude, but you and I are friends. Uh you can have me anytime you want. Okay. Well, I don't make the schedule, but I'll I'll make sure that the powers that be due. I'll talk to Felix.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Make an open invitation. That'd be
Website Details And Open House Plans
SPEAKER_01nice. Uh the website is MHKfreeclinic.com, building A, and uh at 1133 College Avenue.
SPEAKER_00We will see patients this functional now.
SPEAKER_01Wednesday morning.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. Congratulations. That's exciting for you. It's exciting. I we will invite the public to come up in an open house uh when we cut the ribbon and those types of things. So look forward to that.
SPEAKER_01You have a happy birthday, sir. Thank you. You do the same. I'm Plan or not. Rick Hernandez, executive director at the Manhattan Free Clinic, the website again, MHKfreeclinic.com. Leslie White is going to be stepping into the hot seat next. It's so hot. It's such a hot seat. She is with the Flint Hills Discovery Center Foundation, and we got some cool things to be talking about as well. This is the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. Back in a bit.