If your image of a “free clinic” is a small store-front dispensing Band-Aids and aspirin, you need to visit the Good Samaritan Health & Wellness Center, in Jasper, Georgia.
“We provide primary care five days a week and have served more than 8,600 people in Pickens County in 12 years. The population here is less than 30,000, so you can see the need we’re filling,” said Carole Maddux, executive director and CEO.
The clinic provides health care to Pickens County residents, ages 18-64, who have low income and no insurance. It offers medical and dental care, eye examinations and glasses, mental health counseling, a pharmacy, social services, diabetic education, imaging, and laboratory services in seven trailers on land donated by the county. The only charge is $10 for glasses.
“My greatest satisfaction is that people are getting good quality health care that wouldn’t have it otherwise,” said Maddux. “We have no government or third-party payer funding. Our operations come totally from donations, and I have been fortunate to see the very generous side of people in this county. Churches and individuals have donated money for medicines and supplies and we’ve never had any debt. People here want their neighbors to have health care.”
The clinic was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2002 by several physicians and church members of Episcopal Church of the Holy Family in Jasper. They were volunteering in the food pantry and saw that many clients needed medical services.
“They visited a large clinic in Hilton Head and modeled the Jasper clinic after it,” said Maddux. She and a part-time development person are the only paid staff. “Everything else is run by 400 volunteers—doctors, nurses, dentists and people who keep the records and clean the premises. The janitor gets paid as much as the doctor and that makes this a fun place to work,” said Maddux.
Marty Beaver, RN, a hospital administration nurse who retired back to her native Jasper started working in the clinic in 2005. “My mother was a nurse and she had a deep concern for the people here who needed health care and couldn’t get it,” said Beaver, who is co-team leader for nursing. “We prayed for a place like this and I’ve been blessed to see it grow. We fill a gap that is mighty large.” She finds it rewarding to get to know her patients as friends and watch their health improve over time.
Sometimes it’s the smallest thing that makes a difference, said Maddux. “One patient told me that Good Samaritan had changed her life because we gave her glasses,” she said. “She told me, ‘I couldn’t read, drive or work, and now I do all three.’”
Suzanne Cronk, RN, is proud to have counseled a patient to help her get her weight and diabetes under control. She’s watched her go from delivering papers and cleaning houses to running a small assisted living facility. “This clinic makes such a difference to so many,” said Cronk. “I don’t always like it when the alarm goes off at 7:30 in the morning on the days I volunteer, but once I’m here and seeing patients, it’s a joy.”
Cronk, retired from a behavioral medicine unit at Northside Hospital where she worked in mental health, says “I’m definitely using all my nursing skills. I do urine tests and blood sugars. I have learned to run the machines and I use my counseling and patient assessment skills constantly. This is something I want to do in my heart. I’m in it for the long haul.”
Lois Bryant, RN-C, NP, says nurses never retire and she’s living proof. She worked in public health for Fulton County for 28 years, retired, and then went to work for Cobb County. She still does some work for Pickens County Health Department and volunteers at Good Samaritan several days a week.
“When I worked in Fulton County we could send patients to Grady [Memorial Hospital] when we needed to. There was no place to send them in Pickens County,” said Bryant. “When this clinic opened, it was our haven and such a great resource for patients.”
As a nurse practitioner she sees patients for high blood pressure, flu, tonsillitis, infections and chronic diseases like diabetes and hepatitis. The clinic offers diabetic education on Friday afternoons. “It gives me such pleasure to see patients improving. It’s very satisfying to see someone get the care and medication he needs to control his diabetes,” she said. “We’re seeing fewer young deaths or lost limbs or eyesight.”
In 2013, the clinic provided more than 14,000 patient visits, dispensed 15,000 prescriptions and performed 300 x-rays. “We are making a big impact on keeping citizens healthy and employable, but every inch of space is in constant use,” said Maddux. With a capital campaign, the clinic broke ground on a new 16,000 square-foot building to be built in three phases. Phase I and Phase II will replace the trailers and improve existing services. In Phase III, Good Samaritan plans to add wellness and pediatric services.
“Churches and Habitat for Humanity groups have been volunteering to help us build and we plan to open Phase I this fall. The new building will allow us to do things that we can’t do now,” said Maddux.
Their greatest need is for more volunteers, particularly medical staff. “We often recruit each other and we’re lucky that we’re close to Atlanta. Some people commute a day or two a month. Some retire here,” said Bryant. “But we are always in need of nurses, dentists, doctors and people with office or social service skills. This is a great place to make a difference.”
