Clinic With a Heart Inc

Our Mission
A faith-inspired organization, Clinic with a Heart serves the uninsured and underinsured through a ministry of healthcare. Our volunteers provide free healthcare with hospitality, dignity and grace. As part of our commitment to our patients, we serve as a gateway to other human service agencies, helping patients find permanent healthcare homes.

History
In 2002, a team from St. Mark's United Methodist church went on a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico, providing temporary medical care to the poor at a Mexican dump site. The trip planted a seed with the team: if we can do this in Mexico, why can’t we do this in our own backyard? One year later Dr. Rob Rhodes, the physician on the trip, along with community volunteers, held the first “Clinic with a Heart” clinic night. That first night, in May of 2003, they cared for 19 patients in collaboration with Community Action. 

We now have clinics two to three times per week. Each clinic has a team sponsor, providing the volunteer leadership and support, as well as a portion of the financial support, for that clinic night. A wide range of non-emergency care is provided including medical, dental, physical therapy, chiropractic, vision services, hearing screenings and mental health assessments. 

In 2015 Clinic with a Heart provided...

• 3,160 visits to 2,816 patients at clinics sponsored by 11 mission team sponsors;
• more than 500 school and sports physicals;
• 736 dental assessments and care/triage; 
• 228 vision screenings.

Clinic with a Heart volunteers...

• numbered 669 and
• donated 12,137 hours of service to care for patients.
• the value of this donation of service is $280,000.

A glimpse at who we serve--our patients...

• 47% of our patients had elevated blood pressure;
• 94% of our patients did not have insurance, despite 39% being employed; 
• 71% of our patients had household incomes of less than $16,000 a  year;
• 81% were between the ages of 19 and 64; 19% were under the age of 19;
• 72% spoke English as their first language, 16% spoke Spanish, 7% did not speak any English and overall, in 2015, our patients spoke more than 22 languages;
• 42% of our patients indicated that they would have gotten their care in the emergency room if they had not come to our clinic.

We saved the community money...

• conservatively, we estimate that Clinic with a Heart enjoyed a return on investment of 486% by way of replacement medical care costs and community savings achieved by reducing patient visits to hospital emergency departments.