Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
The Free Clinic Revolution: Transforming Michigan's Healthcare System with Mary Lewis
This week, Orlando sat down with Mary Lewis, CEO of the Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic (GBCHC), to discuss how Michigan's largest volunteer-led free clinic is filling the healthcare gap in Michigan.
The mission of the Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic is to provide free, high-quality medical, dental, and pharmaceutical care for low-income and uninsured patients. In addition, their goal is to ensure that treatment is provided in a caring, compassionate and dignified atmosphere.
With the recent Medicaid changes putting over 700,000 Michigan residents at risk of losing coverage, the role of free clinics has never been more critical. At GBCHC, they provide medical, dental, pharmacy, vision, and specialty care at no cost to patients. The clinic is on the front lines of health equity, offering an innovative, community-driven solution to a statewide healthcare access crisis.
If you're uninsured, underinsured, or interested in learning more about the GBCHC, click here.
FOR HOT TAKES:
MARY SHEFFIELD, SOLOMON KINLOCH WIN DETROIT'S MAYORAL PRIMARY
MICHIGAN PAUSES CONTROVERSIAL I-375 CHANGES IN DETROIT, CITING COST AND PUSHBACK
Up next. Mary Lewis, ceo of the Gary Bernstein Health Clinic, joins Authentically Detroit to discuss how Michigan's largest volunteer-led free clinic is filling the healthcare gap in Michigan. Can luck win Detroit's mayoral primary and Michigan pauses controversial I-375 changes in Detroit, citing costs and pushback. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stoudemire, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff. To help get your idea off of the ground, just visit authenticallydetcom and send a request through the contact page. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's start the world.
Speaker 1:Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's Eastside at the Stoudemire inside of the Eastside Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey. Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. I'm flying solo today, as Donna is on vacation this week, and today, later on in the show, I will have the pleasure of interviewing Mary Lewis, the CEO of the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic, to discuss how they're navigating this moment in healthcare history and why the free clinic model is a credible part of Michigan's healthcare ecosystem. It's been an amazing and blessed day here in the city of Detroit. Today is Monday we're recording this on Monday, august 11th, and it is a sweltering 90 degrees outside, and so if you've been outside today, the sun is shining but you feel the heat and you feel the humidity, so make sure that you take time to break inside. But if you can and if you are willing, go outside. This week in the city of Detroit, the weather is supposed to be beautiful, summer is winding down and we are going to sorely, sorely, miss these days once we get into the dead of winter that seems to last forever. Here in the city of Detroit and in Michigan, it's a Monday y'all, and I'm feeling like it's a Monday. It's one of the Monday-est Mondays I've had in a long time.
Speaker 1:I'm coming to you guys off the heels of the National Association of Black Journalists Conference or Convention in Cleveland, ohio. I was there last Wednesday up until yesterday. So I flew into Detroit yesterday, got up and went straight into work this morning. So your boy is tired. What I will say is that the NABJ has a new board. It also has a new executive director and that did not come without some drama. For those of you who are interested and for those of you who are journals who are a part of different chapters throughout the state and throughout the nation, go to nabjorg to read all about it.
Speaker 1:But Cleveland was interesting. You know, cleveland is only what, maybe two hours, two and a half hour drive from the city of Detroit, but it really does feel like another world. Cleveland feels like a southern, a really slow and southern city. To me, and I love cities, cleveland is really like on the slow side. So, being from Detroit and you know loving cities like LA, loving cities like Atlanta and Chicago and even Philly and Baltimore, cleveland is on the slower side. But what I can tell you is that their hospitality is bar none. I mean, from the airport we get off the plane, cookies waiting for us, we had a live DJ in the airport welcoming us to the NABJ convention, from the folks at the hotel to the folks in the Uber. Cleveland probably has to be one of the nicest cities that I've ever gone to and, depending upon where you're I'm talking to black folks now where your parents and grandparents got off the bus or the train. You got family in Cleveland, like I do, and so I did have the opportunity to see some of my cousins. It was a great time and it was a fun field time. Nabj is a long convention, from Wednesday all the way to Sunday, and it was stuff to do every day. So your boy is here. He's tired. I don't know what time it is, but hey, we make it All right, y'all. It's time for Hot Takes where we run down some of the week's top headlines in the city of Detroit.
Speaker 1:Mary Sheffield Solomon Kinloch win Detroit's mayoral primary. About 86,000 Detroiters cast ballots in Tuesday's primary election, sending Mary Sheffield and Solomon Kinloch to the general election in November. The winner will take office January 1st 2026. Mary Sheffield was the top vote getter in Tuesday's election by far, winning about 51% of the vote. Sheffield is the Detroit City Council President, representing District 5. Her campaign raised $1.3 million ahead of the primary roughly half of what all the May Euro candidates raised combined candidates raised combined. Her platform focuses on addressing root causes of crime, restoring neighborhoods through development and homeownership, and creating more opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship. Solomon Kinloch had the second highest vote total, winning just over 17% of the vote. He has been the pastor of Triumph Church since 1998. He's never held political office. His brother, jonathan, is a Wayne County commissioner. Kinloch said he would step down from day-to-day church operations if he's elected mayor, but continued to preach on some Sundays. He grew up on Detroit's West Side and graduated from Northwestern High School. Kinloch is running on a platform of creating workforce training and new jobs, helping open 10 new grocery stores and building 10,000 affordable housing units. The two candidates will compete to be the first new mayor since Mike Duggan took office in 2014.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you guys something. This is going to be a really interesting race. We had a crowded primary field where we had nine candidates competing for the top two spots and for the duration of most of the primary campaign season. Council President Mary Sheffield held a pretty comfortable lead and it really became very clear and apparent that the race really would be for second place. And so you had Santill Jenkins and you had Pastor Solomon Kinloch, who were virtually going neck to neck all night on election night. At one point there were 1,500 votes between them. Solomon Kinloch continued to have held a solid lead.
Speaker 1:I was live on Local 4 doing an election special with Local 4 up into the minute and former city council president excuse me Santel Jenkins gave a valiant effort but it did not best that of Pastor Solomon Kinloch. But here is what I would say If Solomon Kinloch had gotten every single vote of all of the other primary contenders outside of Mary Sheffield, he still would not have been able to best Mary Sheffield. I mean the Associated Press called that race very early on on election day with Sheffield taking over 50% of the vote. If we are to judge how the November general election is going to go by those numbers, then Solomon Kinloch has an uphill battle.
Speaker 1:But what I will also say is that a two-person race is very different from a nine-person race, and so with two candidates vying for the chief executive job of the city of Detroit in November, it really is going to be interesting to watch how each candidate tries to set themselves apart. I don't think they could be any different. First of all, going to be interesting to watch how each candidate tries to set themselves apart. I don't think they could be any different. First of all, I think the only thing that they have in common is that they're both Christian and they're both preachers. I don't think they can be any different in their campaign strategy, in their fundraising strategy, in their platform strategy, in their public appearance strategy. We saw Sheffield out in the streets. We saw Sheffield at candidate forums. We did not see that from Solomon Kinloch in terms of him showing up to candidate forums and other debates held by communities who have organized themselves. And so we have maybe a little under 90 days or so before the November general election and I am really, really interested to see how this will shake out.
Speaker 1:We've heard a lot of ideas and, frankly, platitudes in the primary election season and I think right now, with two candidates in the field, we can sort of clear out a lot of the noise and go beyond platitudes and hear from the candidates and make them expand and expound on their ideas and the vision that they are trying to cast for the city of Detroit if they are elected mayor. Solomon Kinloch wants 10 new grocery stores. He wants 10,000 affordable housing units. How are you going to do that? Mary Sheffield wants to make our city safer. She still supports programs like surveillance programs like ShotSpotter, work that has and is slated to run out of funding that was being funded by ARPA. I know the city council, in this most recent budget, set aside some funds for them, but how are you going to continue to support that? Are you going to look at surveillance technology once again? I mean, there are so many questions up in the air and I do think that we have to pay attention.
Speaker 1:The other contender in this race is turnout. In the primary election, we had about a 17% voter turnout, which is lower than the last primary that was held, I think, in 2021. I think that it is the job of the candidate to turn out the vote and I'm challenging each candidate to go beyond the highest voting precincts that have the highest turnout and to go in neighborhoods where there's traditionally been low voter turnout and voter apathy. What I will say is that voter apathy is not unfounded. What I will say is that Detroiters who are registered to vote but are choosing to habitually sit out the vote is also not unfounded. But it is your job to do the work to cover those areas, to erect a really serious ground game to get those Detroiters up out of their homes in the November election to vote for mayor and for city council. We also have some really interesting city council races that are shaping up in various districts. I think Denzel McCampbell is going to face off with former state rep Karen Whitsett rep Karen Whitsett. You have Tyrone Carter that's going to face off with current city council person Gabriela Santiago Romero, and then you have Angela Woodfield Calloway facing off against former city council person Roy McAllister. So a lot to pay attention to in both races on the council and for the mayor's office. For Hot Takes.
Speaker 1:Michigan pauses controversial I-375 changes in Detroit, citing cost and pushback. Michigan transportation officials are pausing a multimillion-dollar project in the heart of Detroit after concerns over the cost and local pushback to plan changes. Supporters said turning the I-375 freeway into a traditional boulevard was supposed to revitalize communities, including the city's Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods previously wrecked through the creation of the highway and other developments. But outspoken opposition, including from Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, appeared to play a role in the decision to rethink the plan. The Michigan Department of Transportation news release from Monday, august 11, cited issues involving rising costs, longevity of the final project and roadway and public concern over design elements as the reasons for delaying construction. A spokeswoman from the department did not immediately respond to clarifying questions. Here's the quote we have one opportunity to get the project right, said Bradley C Wyrich, state transportation director, said in a news release. I-375 has been open for more than 60 years and we expect the new I-375, whatever design it may be to be in place much longer. Stewards of tax dollars will remain our priority. A group opposed to the current plans for changes to the expressway heralded the pause while echoing previous comments about the need to remove leaders of the project.
Speaker 1:This project pause is a healthy acknowledgement by MDOT of what the Rethink I-375 Community Coalition has known for the past five years that I-375 is a complex project. While roads are part of the puzzle, the project needs to follow from a vision that respects the complexity of the land use, transportation, urban design, local business and restorative justice issues at play in the I-375 corridor. Reads a statement from the Rethink I-375 community coalition that was provided by a spokeswoman. In addition to this pause, new leadership is required. An independent commission or authority must be created or identified whose mandate it is to develop a vision that the entire community can support and a project whose results will be worth the inevitable disruption in cost of the massive infrastructure project in downtown Detroit. Initial estimates put the project costs at roughly $300 million, with related costs associated with a connected reconfiguration of an I-75 interchange I'm sorry, i-75 interchange pushing total cost estimates to approximately $425 million.
Speaker 1:It was not immediately clear how the pause would impact the interchange portion of the project, so I want to make clear that this is the second pause that is being taken on the I-375 project on part of the Michigan Department of Transportation, I think from when former US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stood at that press conference with the governor and with the mayor and really painted a picture of what this new I-375 was supposed to do. What we took away from that press conference is that this is supposed to be a restorative and reparative projects to the systemic, policy-driven wrong and wreckage of a Black epicenter of culture in Black Bottom and in Paradise Valley. The Michigan Department of Transportation has since walked that rhetoric back. The administration here in the city of Detroit has walked that rhetoric back, that rhetoric back, and they have decided to continue to move forward with engaging the community around the impact area at I-375, which includes Lafayette Park, elmwood Park and other areas.
Speaker 1:I lived in Lafayette Park and you know I would always say and I'm on record on this show saying that I'd never received notice for any community gathering related to the design aspects of the new I-375. Know how to do social and inclusive design processes like the city of Detroit is used to, like residents in the city of Detroit are used to, and so they've employed many different contractors. I know that there was money that came down for the downtown development development downtown Detroit partnership excuse me to redistribute dollars to entities like Detroit Future City and that was also supposed to redistribute dollars to play space organizations who knew how to organize community. What we will say is that the community organizing and engagement process for I-375 has left a lot to be desired and left many residents like me, who actually lives in Lafayette Park, not feeling included, right, having to and I'm a pretty engaged resident so I knew when those meetings were happening, but other folks in my building probably did not if they are not as engaged as I am and many iterations of the new I-375 design has left a lot to be desired on part of the residents and so they're going to take a pause. I'm really not confident that this will happen, that we will see a resurfacing of I-375. That remains to be seen, but I don't have confidence that it will.
Speaker 1:The article has stated that Mayor Duggan and his administration has stepped away from it. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans has stepped away from it and I don't hear a lot coming from the Whitmer administration. At the state level, the US Department of Transportation secretary at the time, pete Buttigieg, pledged $100 million to this project. We don't know, you know we don't have an actual as to where any of the money has already gone and how much has already been spent in this process. That has gone on so far, so more to come.
Speaker 1:I know some of you, like me, have sat at your auntie's feet, at grandma's feet, fascinated hearing stories about a time that you did not live in. But you felt like you were there when you heard your grandma telling you stories about Black Bottom and Paradise Valley and what it used to be like and all of the Black-owned businesses and pharmacies and entertainment venues that existed there and hotels. I mean it was a cooperative and self-determined economy that was literally raised because of racist policies, and so I-375 should have a reparative aspect to it. If they have walked back that language, all right, that's it for Hot Text. If you have stories that you want covered on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, instagram and X, or you can email us at AuthenticallyDetroit at gmailcom. Mary Lewis is coming up next. We will be right back. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs. The Mass Detroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations. No-transcript 331-3485. All right, everybody, welcome back to Authentically Detroit.
Speaker 1:I am here with Mary Lewis of the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic.
Speaker 1:The health clinic is to provide free, high quality medical, dental and pharmaceutical care for low income and uninsured patients.
Speaker 1:In addition, their goal is to ensure that treatment is provided in a caring, compassionate and dignified atmosphere. In 1997, after working 20 years as a cardiologist, dr Gary Bernstein began providing care for patients at a homeless shelter in Pontiac, michigan. Dr Bernstein passed away in 2003, but friends, family and community members honored his dream of providing care to the uninsured by establishing the Dr Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. Dr Bernstein's dream of providing free medical care for those in need began in a closet at the shelter and grew into a small rented facility in Pontiac. The clinic has since moved into a brand new, state-of-the-art facility that allows them to treat more patients, train more physicians and pharmacists and to reach the broader community in ways never before possible. With expanded office hours, a new dental suite and the capacity for sustained community education programs, the clinic is positioned to have a larger impact on a very deserving community and I am happy to say for the first time Mary Lewis, welcome to Authentically Detroit.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you for allowing me to be here and to chat a little bit about the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic Bernstein Bernstein, not Bernstein Bernstein Community Health Clinic and our hope not only for the state of Michigan but for the city of Detroit as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So how are you feeling? How's this day finding you?
Speaker 2:Today was a busy day. It was a busy day Back-to-back meetings but that's good right, that's part of the gig as being CEO, but it's all good things because I believe that the free clinic model is the model to transform healthcare as we know it. So being able to share the message, share the story, makes it all meaningful.
Speaker 1:And how long have you been the CEO?
Speaker 2:It's been about a year and a half now, a year and a half and so can you tell us how you ascended into this position?
Speaker 1:What's the story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a very interesting story. I actually applied for another position at the clinic, went in for a tour, the CEO at that time offered me the position, like on a Friday, and then rescinded the position on Monday. But I knew in my heart that I was supposed to be at the clinic. I couldn't explain it, but I knew that I was supposed to be there. A few weeks passed and a position opened up for director of clinic operations. And if, literally, if you put my resume on top of this this new kind of position, I was like, oh, this is perfect, it's better than the other job that I applied for. So I applied for the job, didn't hear back, went on to interview and received an offer from a different medical organization and I turned it down because of my heart.
Speaker 2:I knew I was supposed to be at the Bernstein Clinic. Not even five to eight minutes later, the former CEO sends me a text message and says I can't stop thinking about you being the director of clinic operations. If you want the job, it's yours. Another three weeks went by and, long story short, he offered me the position, probably on a Wednesday. Now, mind you, my family and I were living in Kalamazoo. I was back and forth taking care of my uncle. I have three uncles, one's 100, one's 95, the other's 92.
Speaker 1:In Oakland County or here in Wayne County.
Speaker 2:Well, they now all live in Oakland County because it's just easier to reach them and care for them my sister, my brother and I and he offered me the position on a Wednesday and said but I need you to start on Monday.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:So I called my husband and I was like hey, I have a job offer. They want me to start on Monday. How do you feel about that? And we knew we were coming back to the area and I started that position on April 27th 2023. August 30th 2023, the board asked me to step in as interim CEO and I honestly thought they were looking for someone, but they were not and they offered me the gig and it's probably one of the most rewarding positions in my 30-year career in healthcare.
Speaker 2:It means a lot to me, so I knew I was supposed to be there. I didn't think it was going to be a CEO, but here I am.
Speaker 1:Do you feel called? What I'm hearing you say is that you felt something almost like a spiritual attachment and calling to this position. And you have. You have 30 years in your building health care industry. Yes, talk a little bit about that. Were you called to this? Yes, talk a little bit about that Were you called to this?
Speaker 2:This is my next, and probably my last position. I know that I have been called to disrupt health care just because there are so many barriers and it's not easy to navigate the system, and so I feel that I've been called to change the system from the inside out, and this is giving me the opportunity to do it in a really meaningful and direct way.
Speaker 1:So tell me how your workload looks right now, since the passing of the big beautiful bill that is literally slashing funding for state regulated Medicare, medicaid and people. You know kicking people off of health care and you know limiting the kind of health care treatment options that folks can get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very disheartening because we're just looking at it from oh, people won't have access to primary care services, but we're not thinking about hospital closures and all of these things. But currently there are about 530,000 Michigan residents who are uninsured, about 530,000 Michigan residents who are uninsured. That doesn't count the 750,000 who are at risk of losing their Medicaid and or Medicare. So a little over 1.5 million individuals will not have access to care and what happens is the hospitals, the emergency departments, become overutilized, right, hospitals, the emergency departments become overutilized, right? I'll kind of give you some statistics here. So about 530,000 Michigan residents do not have healthcare insurance and or access to care.
Speaker 2:That individual were present to the emergency department about eight times the ninth time. They are admitted anywhere from seven to 21 days. Once they're discharged, they're readmitted within 45 days of the discharge for the same thing that brought them in at the first care, right, quality care is that preventive care that makes sure that diabetes, which is treatable, like people are dying from diabetes and they don't have to. They're dying from hypertension and they don't have to die from hypertension. And, to be quite transparent, it's people of color who are at greatest risk, of course.
Speaker 1:And then you have folks. You know also this big beautiful bill cover, you know, 100 percent of SNAP benefits and now the state will be required to pay up to 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs, and so folks are losing their food stamps and folks will go hungry and that has all kinds of health repercussions, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And even you know, on the Medicaid. So, regarding Medicaid, the federal government right covers 50 to 90 percent of spending for Michiganders, depending on the plan they're enrolled in. Michigan's Medicaid budget in the fiscal year totaled nearly $28 billion, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Recent data from KFF indicated Michigan will face a $32 billion federal spending decrease across the next decade under the bill, making it one of the harder hit states. Are we seeing ripples of this now?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We've had about a 20% increase in our patient population because they no longer have their health insurance, which means they no longer have access right to care. And just to go back right, it's over $300 billion right cut. But the financial devastation right to the global health care system is literally going to double. I dare say triple.
Speaker 2:Right, because we're only thinking Medicaid and we're not thinking system and there's a difference. Right, and we need to change the healthcare system so that people have access. There are no barriers. They have what they need when they need it in a way that's meaningful to them. Talking about their care, and because they have this service available to them, the EDs no longer become overutilized, hospital admissions go down, hospital readmissions go down, bad debt for the healthcare system goes down, bad debt for the patient goes down and the overall cost of healthcare goes down. Right, it just makes sense to ensure that people who live in this country have access to healthcare. So what's happening again is completely devastating and, from my opinion, 100% inappropriate, and it's going to cost us way more than it is saving us by kicking people off.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you this question Out of DC about a week and a half ago. A couple of weeks ago, we got a jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the president was not happy with the jobs report because unemployment is up. People are not getting jobs at the numbers that he thought we were getting jobs in and he fired the labor person. But the numbers that were presented is true. That were presented is true. How and why do we in this country attach healthcare to full-time employment and what kinds of gaps does that create?
Speaker 2:That is such a great question. From my perspective, healthcare is the center of the wheel, right? So if it is a school problem, it's probably related to healthcare. Adhd, tooth pain right, those are health concerns. If there is a criminal justice concern, it's because people don't have access to the healthcare that they need and so they do other things, right.
Speaker 2:So, from my perspective, if we aren't addressing the health and well-being of people Right, if we're not saying, ok, diabetes is treatable, we'll treat you with medication and we're going to give you a diet plan, right, so you can, you're able to make better health decisions or food decisions, nutrition decisions. It makes us all better. So if we want to deal with all of these ancillary things, we have to address the health and well-being. So if I'm not healthy, so again. For example, we provide dental services at the clinic. One of the things that we offer are dentures for our patients at no cost. I can't tell you how many stories of individuals who receive their dentures they feel better, they present better at a job interview or they're willing to go on an interview right, because now they can smile and talk.
Speaker 1:They can smile.
Speaker 2:And their life changes.
Speaker 2:And they can get a job and they can get a job, and then they have insurance. And then there's this transgenerational impact that occurs Because now that you have dentures, you're able to get a full-time job. Now that you have a full-time job, you have insurance. Now that you have insurance and a full-time job, now you are able to make healthier choices. Now your children have access to care, so where they weren't going to see the dentist, now they're able to see, right. All of these things happen just because a person has access to dentures, right. And that's same with diabetes and hypertension. If I can't control my sugar, with diabetes and hypertension, if I can't control my sugar, I'm going to call in all the time because I can't go to work dizzy, diaphoretic or sweating, right and expect to work and expect to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. Also, one of the things that you know standing out to me is some of the ancillary or tertiary components of the healthcare system, things like, you know, davita dialysis, which was, like, still a target of a federal investigation on their business practices. And you know corporations and things starting hospital systems and building healthcare, making healthcare profitable for corporations and shareholders. If you had a magic wand because I know you've thought a lot about this how would you fix it? How does this get fixed?
Speaker 2:So my vision is to have a free clinic inside of every major hospital across the country. Again, access means everything. So what we use, a couple of things makes the Bernstein Clinic really unique. One we're the largest volunteer led free clinic. That means I have over 600 active volunteers. So all of my doctors, all of my nurses, the dentist, the pharmacist, the medical assistants they are all volunteers.
Speaker 2:I don't have one paid provider on my staff and so, taking the volunteer approach, people are there because they want to be and not because they have to be. So if my provider needs to take 30 minutes with a patient, they do it. If they need to take an hour with the patient, they do it, because there isn't this pressure for that reimbursement model, Right. In addition to that, we have some really great partners who've just come alongside and really get what we're doing and appreciate it and really fund and support the work that we're doing. And so my idea is a free clinic inside of every major hospital or health system and using the volunteer model.
Speaker 2:I'll take, for example, the Henry Ford Health System. Right? You think of everyone that example, the Henry Ford Health System, right? You think of everyone that works inside of Henry Ford Health System downtown. If we use the volunteer model, that's probably one volunteer shift per year for one employee. Again, what happens? People become healthier. The ED isn't overutilized admissions. Go down right all of the things, because people just have access to care yeah and access transforms communities, and that's been our experience access transforms communities.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, wow. We're talking with Mary Lewis of the Gary Bernstein.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:The Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. We're going to be right back with more. Stay tuned. Detroit One Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black journalism independent reporting. Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. I'm here with Mary Lewis, the CEO of the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. I want to ask you a question about.
Speaker 1:So you talked about volunteers and for some that may bring comfort when they hear about volunteer physicians and you know workers at the free clinic, but for some it may be pause for concern, right? How do you maintain, you know, an excellent level of care, a standard of care with volunteers?
Speaker 2:in and out all year long Great question. So we've had to do a couple of things. One, we had to recognize that the word free often comes with trauma, right. Yes, right, there are multiple examples, and so we had to address that. For us Now, free is just a perk, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But what really matters is the quality of health care that you receive at the Bernstein Clinic. Quality of healthcare that you receive at the Bernstein Clinic, and our patients have grown to trust us that it is nothing to do with free, but we really have some of the best of the best physicians who volunteer. One of my cardiologists when he was still practicing he's since retired. He was the guy that they would fly to different countries to care for foreign dignitaries.
Speaker 2:That's who's volunteering at the clinic. I have an amazing volunteer manager, lindsay Potts. When she started she started six weeks before I did there were 75 active volunteers. So in two and a half years she's grown that program from 75 volunteers to over 600. And it really is. We had to operationalize right that process. So now we're onboarding differently. We're taking our volunteers through tours. We're very clear about our expectations. We will turn people away. We will let volunteers go right, because that's how much we care about what we're doing. And so you know you have to have a medical license right All of the things you would find in a traditional healthcare environment. You have to have at the Bernstein Clinic. Free doesn't mean subpar. Free means, from our perspective, excellence.
Speaker 1:What are some of the rewards and, frankly, can you be frank about some of the challenges of running the clinic right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, some of the challenges, of course money. I'm very fortunate in the sense that-.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, who's funding y'all Great?
Speaker 2:question. We have not received one federal grant. We have a pass through one or two pass through state grants.
Speaker 1:That may be for your benefit right now.
Speaker 2:It is for our benefit and we are very grateful. Not having a federal grant on the balance sheet About 60 percent of our funding comes through grants, through private donors, private foundations, and then we have an amazing, amazing philanthropic arm to the clinic. I can't tell you the generosity of the people who support the clinic. It's just amazing.
Speaker 1:That's good. That's good. And so talk about your advocacy statewide. Talk about your advocacy statewide, right? You know how are you having conversations with folks across the state, policymakers across the state, to make health care access easier to you know populations who are contending on the margins, like those in Pontiac and in the city of Detroit on the margins like those in Pontiac and in the city of Detroit.
Speaker 2:So, to be very transparent with you, one of the things we haven't done well, as the free clinic and just kind of as an FYI, there are 57 free clinics in the state of Michigan. What we haven't done a really great job is demonstrating our impact.
Speaker 1:So it's every nonprofit CEO in the region and in the state. We know the impact is there.
Speaker 2:We know the impact is there and we're able to quantify our impact, which is amazing, but we haven't done a great job demonstrating that the free clinic model is a credible and valuable model to the healthcare ecosystem and I think, as a result of that, we don't get the funding that we probably should could. And so right now, my message, as much as it is about the Bernstein Clinic, because that's home it is really about the free clinic model for me, okay, thinking ecosystem. Thinking ecosystem because I'm a disruptor and I feel that I've been called to change the system, and not just one space or one clinic. And so we are really just starting the work of really engaging with our local government, our state legislators, to say that we're here, nice, and we're a valuable model, and I think that's true for free clinics across the state of Michigan as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we're very intentional and because we're able to quantify everything that we do intentional and because we're able to quantify everything that we do. You know I have 600 plus active volunteers who gave away over $2.1 million in free care last year. Right, we can quantify that. We gave close to $2 million away in free medications last year, close to $10 million in free medical care, about a million in free dental care. So we can quantify those things.
Speaker 1:now Come on data.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I'm a data nerd, I know. Yeah, I'm a data nerd. And so because we're and we saved the ED $1.8 million in averted ED visits in 2024, right. So because we can quantify those things, now we can go to the table and say whether you believe or not that everyone deserves the right to great health care, regardless of their ability to pay for it. The model speaks for itself. Yeah, and that's my message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it. Can you talk about this new state of the art facility?
Speaker 2:Yes, OK, so Dr Bernstein saw his first patient in a closet. We're now in a seventy,700 square foot building when is the building.
Speaker 2:We're located 44580 Woodward Avenue in Pontiac, michigan. We have five dental operatories, six medical rooms. We have a fully licensed pharmacy, which is amazing. So if you think of a Walgreens or a Meijer Pharmacy, we have that there Primary care services. We also have, oh my gosh, about 10 medical specialties. So we have cardiology, urology, gyne, derm, podiatry, optometry, ophthalmology, right Dermatology Dermatology because our goal is to make sure that our patients have access to the service that they need while they're there.
Speaker 2:When I take a day off to go to the doctor, I fill out a PTO slip. When my patient takes a day off to come to the doctor, it's food on the table. It's something for their right. It's a barrier, and our job is to remove those barriers for our patients. So, ideally, if our patient can see Dr Weitzman for their diabetic care, see Dr Gold, our podiatrist, on the same day for a diabetic foot exam, see Dr Jacques or one of our optometrists the same day for their diabetic eye exam, have their labs drawn and receive a 90-day supply of medication, all within 90 minutes. We've done our job well.
Speaker 1:I mean, this sounds like an amazing experience. Number one I mean, how many times have you left the hospital with a script and then you got to go to and you're sick and you got to go drop it off at the pharmacy, then you got to pick it up at the pharmacy and this is a one-stop shop. This is a one-stop shop for all of that. Um, so we're, we're here in the city of Detroit, we're on the east side. Um, any, any plans for expansion? Any sister uh clinics here in the city of Detroit? Any, shuttles down what we're to Pontiac so that we can see this amazing facility.
Speaker 2:Our hope is to be in Detroit within the next six months to a year. Oh my goodness, I really have an ambitious goal of one clinic per year through 2030.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So, again, we look at the data and we see where there's the greatest need and then, based on that, we're moving forward. So hopefully we'll have some good news and a presence in Detroit very, very soon. Okay, I'm happy to hear that On the east side. Okay, east side.
Speaker 1:That's where we're from, that's where we are. Your mission, your calling to disrupt healthcare as we know it to make it work for people, people. My last prompt for you is you know, what do you want people to take away from this conversation, from this work, from this mission, and from you know the vision that Dr Bernstein had starting off in a little closet all those years ago?
Speaker 2:Yeah, dr Bernstein believed that everyone has the right to great health care, regardless of their ability to pay for it, and I believe that to the very core of my being, that access truly does change community and there's a transgenerational impact that occurs when people are healthy, and it is my responsibility to make sure that people have access to care.
Speaker 2:I grew up in between Royal Oak Township and my aunt took care of me, who lived in Detroit, and so I had to use community health clinics, and one of the things I distinctly remember is the smell of urine and the people weren't nice. And this is really a full circle moment for me to work alongside some really phenomenal people to say we're going to practice medicine differently and we're going to make a significant impact. And so what I want people to walk away from is knowing that, yes, the triple B is awful and people are at risk of losing their health care insurance, but there is a solution, and it's the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. If you're uninsured, underinsured, there's a place for you here, right? We just want to care for people and we want our communities well.
Speaker 1:I love that, and I especially love the point that you're making about the transgenerational impact, because we often see transgenerational impact in the reverse where we are passing down.
Speaker 1:You know diabetes and hypertension and you know cancers and things of that sort, but when people have access to free health care, in a community that cares about them, that sees them, that hears them, because we also have data uh, quantifiable data that black people don't feel listened to when they go to the doctor. And what I'm hearing from you is that you are, you guys have built a community where everybody is seen, everybody is heard and everybody is valued, and so we can sort of reverse some of those negative transgenerational diseases that we continue to pass down in our lineages and start something new.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you one more example. Yeah, so a large number of our patients are diabetic. My second week at the clinic, I go into the pharmacy and I see this person like patient's getting their refill, and the pharmacist is putting test strips in a bag, a glucometer in a bag, lancets needles in a bag, and I'm like what's going on here? What is this? And she's like well, it'sets needles in a bag and I'm like what's going on here? What is this? And she's like well, it's one thing to give people medication, but if they don't have the supplies to support it, they aren't compliant, right? People don't want to be compliant. They need the access and they need the tools to be successful.
Speaker 2:I went back to my office and I cried like a baby because I was like this is what health care looks like. Right? This is what disrupting the system looks like. And so every diabetic patient at our clinic receives a glucometer, the test strips that they need, the test strips that they need. So if you have to test four times a day and you can only afford one box of 75 strips that are anywhere from $75 to $100, it's not that you're non-compliant, it's just you have to take care of your family. And so what the data has shown us recently the number one reason in 2021, 2022, 2023 for a visit to the Bernstein Clinic was diabetes. 24, 2024, 2025, the number one reason a patient comes to the clinic is for the annual exam. Diabetes has gone from number one to number four. Nice Access Access Access Access changes. Community Nice Access Access Access Access changes.
Speaker 1:Community Yep and tell your uncles and grandfathers and fathers to go to the doctor.
Speaker 2:Yes, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid because we're dying. We are dying from treatable, manageable disease processes out of fear. You have the right I'm sorry, I know I keep saying this is my last thing as a patient, you have a right to advocate for yourself. If you don't understand something that your doctor is saying, you ask them to explain it again. If you still don't understand, you ask them to explain it again. If they can't do it, you ask for someone else. Who can? You have a right to be an equal, heard and valued partner in your healthcare journey.
Speaker 1:But you gotta go.
Speaker 2:But you have to go Because health and well-being is a right to everyone, right, and so I know that from the black experience we've had a lot of trauma associated with providers in the healthcare system. But go, especially if you are uninsured, underinsured. Find a free clinic. It doesn't have to be the Gary Bernstein Clinic. There are several clinics in the Detroit free clinics in the Detroit area. But seek care.
Speaker 1:Mary Lewis, CEO of the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. Thank you so much for joining us here on Authentically Detroit.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:All right, if you have topics that you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit, on Facebook, instagram and X, or you can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmailcom. All right, it is time for shout outs. I would like to shout out the entire team at WDIV, local 4. I thought that we put on an amazing election night special last Tuesday and I was honored to be a part of it. To everybody who watched, thank you, thank you. Thank you To everybody who sent a note. People were trying to call and text me while I was live on the air. It was like y'all see, this is live, I'm on TV. Thank you all. So much for the love and support. It does not go unnoticed. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You know, I was having a conversation with a really good friend of mine, who I will not name because she's also sort of, you know, really a public figure. She is, and she asked me had I ever been named in any of these 40 under 40, 30 in your 30, 20 in your 20, you know, any of these awards? Have I ever gotten any of them? And my answer was no. She's like how can that be? And I'm like.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I don't know, but I don't dwell on it. Only because when I take a drive through the city of Detroit, if I decide to take a walk through the city of Detroit, that is reward enough, because the people, the residents in the hood, downtown, all and I do mean all come up to me and show me a tremendous amount of love, and that means more than anybody deciding that I am a standout amongst my peers, when the people that I aim to serve, residents of the city of Detroit, decide to stop whatever they're doing to tell you that you're doing a good job. I thank you, detroit, and I love you Detroit. Mary, do you have any shout-outs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would have any shout outs. Yeah, I would like to shout out every single volunteer at the Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic. You make what I do so easy, so thank you for your dedication, for your commitment and for really loving and caring for our patients.
Speaker 1:All right, Donna Gibbons-Davidson, enjoy your vacation and until next time, everybody love on your neighbor. Outro Music.
