DENISON, TX -- Helping people without health insurance might be at the top of Washington's list, but it's also a big priority for a Texoma clinic, and relief is on the way for those who can't afford medical care or insurance. First News’ newest reporter Maddie Garrett has more.
The Greater Texoma Health Clinic is working around the clock to offer more services to people in Grayson County. We talked with clinic staff and CEO about how they hope to improve healthcare in Texoma.
"We are closer than ever before to the reform that the American people need and we're going to get the job done."
That was President Obama's message on healthcare reform only a few days ago.
But at the Greater Texoma Health Clinic in Denison, change is already on the way.
"We will find a way that we can try to provide more help to more people," physician’s assistant Jason Montague says.
Part of that help will be from the addition of Medicaid services. Medicaid patients will no longer have to travel out of Grayson County or go to the emergency room for treatment.
"You know our mission was always to serve, initially to serve the uninsured. And so now we're just expanding that mission," CEO Linda Bryant says.
But that's not all the health clinic is doing to reach out.
They are also working to become a federally qualified health clinic. This means more money, more doctors, and more patients with access medical care.
With the addition of federal funding the clinic will be able to turn empty spaces into fully functioning exam rooms.
"I think it fulfills what we started out doing several years ago. It's progress, and it's progress that helps the community," Bryant says.
Federal qualification would mean significant changes for the clinic. Currently the clinic has only seven staff members. That number would double almost immediately. Along with more doctors and nurses the clinic will be able to treat thousands more uninsured and under-served patients.
It’s why Jason Montague finds his work at the clinic rewarding.
"This is one of the few places where I have been where the patients often times tears almost come to their eyes. They are so grateful that someone can help them."
Right now the clinic has about 3,000 patient visits a year, but with the planned expansions, they expect that number to increase to over 13,000, and the clinic staff said they are very excited about the progress.
On the Web:
Study found more germs and a wider variety of bacterial types in houses with dogs
But it's unclear what the finding might mean for patients
Hopelessness, disability may play a role in feelings of despair, study finds
But questions remain about widespread screening
Patients thought to have lung condition were re-evaluated in small study
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's record-low teen birth rate stems from robust declines in nearly every state, but most dramatically in several Mountain States and among Hispanics, according to a new government report.
In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation. It was Poland's first face transplant.
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kathrin Jansen is a microbiologist with at least two breakthrough vaccines to her name: she brought the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to market for Merck and helped develop the $4 billion a year pneumonia and meningitis vaccine Prevnar 13 for Pfizer. Jansen's next vaccine success could come by taming the superbug MRSA, a drug-resistant bacterium that she has seen ravage a healthy man up close and personally. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infects an estimated 53 million people globally and costs more than $20 billion a year to treat. ...
