ABC: Eureka Springs's Free Clinic Runs on Kindness

ABC News
Eureka Springs's Free Clinic Runs on Kindness
ECHO Clinic's Volunteer Army Treats Hundreds Who Can't Afford Health Insurance
By ERIN HAYES

Jan. 7, 2008—

What do a bank executive, a retired nurse, a jeweler, a computer specialist, an artist, a teenager and an idealistic family doctor -- all from the tiny town of Eureka Springs, Ark. -- have in common? They are part of a unique approach to the health care crisis in America: all have volunteered to help their uninsured neighbors receive first-rate health care -- for free. And nearly 200 other local volunteers have joined them.

"I thought it would be more of an effort to get everybody on board," explains Dr. Dan Bell. He's the idealistic family doctor who, with his bright and energetic wife Suzie, envisioned creating a free health care clinic four years ago. "I thought we'd be doing something in the back room of our church and seeing a dozen people," Dan said of his early vision. Instead, the Eureka Christian Health Outreach clinic, known as ECHO, sees hundreds of patients a year. Its entire staff, which now includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and a wide range of clerks, assistants, social workers and specialists, are all volunteers. No one receives a penny for their time and, on clinic nights, they can work six hours or more without a break. And that's after most of them have already put in a full day at their regular jobs.

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"Around here, 25 percent to 30 percent of the people are not insured, and so they're not getting good health care. And they either let their chronic conditions go -- and don't get taken care of well enough and let themselves get in trouble -- or maybe show up in the emergency room sicker than they should be," Bell says. Suzie Bell adds that she didn't realize the extent of the problem until she took a good, hard look at it. "It kind of shocked me, it was kind of a wake-up call, because I live in this guarded world where I've had health care. And to see people go without it, to see diabetics who just don't get treated because they can't afford it, that was just unfathomable to me. And it surprised me that there were so many."

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ECHO doesn't have its own building, so a swarm of volunteers descends upon the empty gymnasium of the Faith Christian Family Church and, within a few hours, transforms it into a fully-functional medical clinic. And when the clinic closes for the night, volunteers take it all apart, sterilize everything, and pack it all away until the next clinic. It is exhausting, but the volunteer team takes pride in doing it right.

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There are, in fact, hundreds of "free" or "charitable" clinics in the U.S. Some are very small and operate infrequently; others have spacious buildings and an ambitious schedule. All, however, depend heavily upon the generosity of volunteers -- and donors. The National Association of Free Clinics, which helps guide communities to develop and operate charitable clinics, estimates that over $300 million per year is raised in private funds for those clinics nationwide. That helps to provide care for approximately 3.5 million uninsured and underinsured patients.

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http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=6593866&page=1

I didn't know about them. I work for a non-profit health education foundation with focus on integrative medicine at our demonstration clinic. We have Laboratory Assistance Grants to help the uninsured help pay for lab tests. We do not charge Medicare patients for office visits, and allow uninsured folks to pay out their bills (which are modest) over time. I'll let our Board know about this outfit and see if they know anything more about them.

if you read the whole story.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon there.