News at KC Free

 

Clinical Trials

“The Kansas City Free Health Clinic Clinical Trials are open to everyone, not just existing KC Free Patients.

Our primary focus are on the very latest therapies for HIV/AIDS and diagnosing Sexually Transmitted infections (STI’s).

To be involved in one of our clinical trials for any or both of these conditions please contact our Clinical Research Coordinator Brenda at 816-777-2757 or by email: brendal@kcfree.org”

 

Clinic to benefit from

Intouch Solutions

philanthropic endeavors

In its first formal philanthropic outreach, the Clinic along with Dreams for Kids in Chicago and the national charity Ol Foundation will benefit both financially as well as through the talents of the Intouch professionals.

Intouch Solutions volunteers will use some of their 10-years of experience in the social marketing to help the Clinic develop a social media strategy and guidelines for Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. For this website, Intouch Solutions will

a.       Update the look and feel to better integrate social media properties

b.      Add a blog section

c.       Create an online volunteer application

d.      Help develop strategy for eNewsletters

e.      Enhance integration with MATEC

Intouch Solutions was MedAdNews2010 Agency of the Year. To learn more about Intouch Solutions, visit their website www.intouchsol.com

 

 

HIV/AIDS Awareness Day at

the K

Sunday, July 24 - 1:00 pm   Learn more

 

National HIV Testing Day

2011 - Monday, June 27.

The Family Project Partner Agency Events: Outreach and HIV Testing

The Family Project is proud of our agency partners’ outreach and testing efforts. In addition to daily operation of Counseling and Testing Services and Expanded Testing Initiatives agencies are working double time to reach even more community members on June 27th for National HIV Testing Day 2011.

These events ultimately recruit newly positive clients into programming (and collaborating initiatives within the community). Attached is your guide to testing and outreach events coordinated by agencies within The Family Project partnership.

The Family Project includes: AIDS Project of the Ozarks, Truman Medical Center, Good Samaritan Project and lead agency Kansas City Free Health Clinic . All partners funded through this Ryan White Part D funded program (Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau).

Please help us spread the word and increase the number of people who learn their status at one of the many events on National HIV Testing Day!

 

Clinic facility at 5119 E 24th is closed! Services moving to bigger and better space in Research Medical Center Doctor's Buildings,
6400 East Bldg Ste 200, 6400 Prospect!

• Information sheet (pdf)
The Clinic has provided dental services to adults at no charge since 1974 and at a facility at 5119 East 24th since 1986. Called East Side, the 24th Street Clinic certainly has had its drawbacks and challenges … but thousands received care there!

For the most part until 2006, Clinic dental services were provided by volunteer dentists like Dr. Bob Claassen, Dr. Bryon Haley, Dr. Chris Merriweather, Dr. Bill Brown, and by NHSC Dr. Herman Campbell.

And, UMKC’s Dr. Bill Cleveland provided over five years of service to Clinic dental patients while providing supervision for UMKC dental students from the early 2000s to 2007.

In 2006, the Clinic was awarded funds from REACH to hire Jane Grove, DDS, as our full time dentist and the Clinic was able to offer full time dental services in addition to the services offered by volunteer providers.

Thanks to Research Medical Center donating rent-free space to the Clinic, services offered at East Side are being moved to a renovated suite in the doctor’s building at 6400 Prospect. The new space will be so much better for patients, volunteers and staff – there is better access to transportation, ample parking, round the clock security and the new dental area will have four chairs instead of three!

But, just when we are able to improve services, the funding for our staff dentist has ended and we have not been able to replace it! Overall, the dental program budget is short over $180,000 this year! We need the community’s help, please financially support the program so that we can maintain, and eventually expand, services. Major gifts, one time gifts and/or monthly gifts are all welcome.

 

Clinic RN Named "Nurse of the Week" by KC Nursing News

 

Jacki Witt, RNC, MSN, JD, WHNP, CNM, teaches, mentors, practices and develops programs. "Nursing has been so good to me," Witt said. "Nursing has also been a very humbling experience for me." Witt said people keep her motivated. "It sounds trite, it's the people, working with people," she said. Witt teaches nursing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she assesses students in clinical settings. She said remaining hands-on while treating patients helps her students. "I can't imagine not doing that," she said. "I have students with me about everywhere I go. There is always somebody with me." Witt received a 2011 UMKC Alumni Award for her contributions at the university and in the community. She serves on the board of directors for the Maternal Child Health Coalition of Greater Kansas City and as the project director for the U.S. Department of Health's National Clinical Training Center, training clinicians in family planning clinics. She is a women's health nurse practitioner at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic and the Women's Wellness Clinic at Truman Medical Centers, and she co-founded the Helen Gragg Clinic at Operation Breakthrough - St. Vincent's Family Service Center. She said she feels called to work with patients in underserved populations.

 

 

May 15 and May 22

Join us at a benefit for the Clinic:

April 5, 1971 - April 5, 2011

2011 is a milestone year for the Clinic as it marks the 40th anniversary of the midtown free health clinic first opening its doors to provide free care to the uninsured in Kansas City. It was April 5 in 1971 and Channel 9 was there filming and reporting the story. The first patient was an 80-year old woman.

Located a little more than 5 blocks from where it first opened, the Clinic is still providing care for the uninsured in Kansas City….providing care for over 16,000 per year.

“Forty” years of providing health care to people in our community. Historically, free health clinics open and close within a few months, a few years. The Kansas City Free Health Clinic didn’t.

“Free” is what was unique about the Clinic in the first place; “Free” is still what sets us apart. “Free” is our anchor, it ties our 40 year past to our future. Many things have changed and will, but we are still free!

“Forward” expresses the Clinic’s stability, soundness, preparedness and energy for the future. “Forward” means we plan to be here for as long as we are needed.

Great News -- a Jesuit Volunteer has been assigned to Clinic for 2011-12!

The Clinic was accepted as a placement site by the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) and will have a JVC volunteer working as a full time staff member splitting their time between General Medicine as a Medical Assistant and Behavioral Health as a Case Management Assistant

As a Medical Assistant in the General Medicine, the JV will room patients, take history, and vital signs. The JV will work with other health care professionals such as Medical Assistants, RN's, and Physician extenders as well as physicians. This job will entail computer work, paperwork, & actual hands-on care.

As a Case Management Assistant in the Behavioral Health department, the JV will provide crisis intervention and psychosocial assessments; compile comprehensive client assessments to mobilize community resources; provide ongoing client referrals & confer with referrals; participate in client progress review; and coordinate the Behavioral Health Patient Assistance Program and Medical Records process.
JVC is the largest full time Catholic lay volunteer program in the country. Based on the four core of social justice, simple living, community, and spirituality, Jesuit Volunteers (JVs) are called to the mission of serving the poor directly. They work for and with people who are homeless, unemployed, refugees, people with AIDS, the elderly, street youth, abused women and children, the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled. Hundreds of grassroots organizations across the country and around the world count on JVs to provide essential services to low-income people and those who live on the margins of society.
Jesuit Volunteers are generally recent college graduates and tend to be hard-working and enthusiastic. JV’s provide agencies a full-time well educated volunteer at a fraction of the cost of a full salaried employee. JVs make a year long commitment domestically and are found in large metropolitan areas and smaller cities across the US and in urban settings and smaller rural communities internationally. JVs work in a variety of placements, as teachers and community organizers, in health and legal fields, with the elderly and people who are physically and mentally challenged.

 

Number Of Uninsured Americans Grew To 52 Million Last Year.
Bloomberg News (3/17, Wechsler) reports, "Unemployment and rising expenses caused 9 million Americans to lose health insurance during the past two years, according to researchers backed by a group advocating access to healthcare." Notably, "losses of coverage helped swell the ranks of uninsured adults in the US to 52 million in 2010, according to a study released today by the Commonwealth Fund." In addition, another "73 million adults had difficulties paying for healthcare and 75 million deferred treatment because they couldn't afford it, researchers said."

The Hill (3/17, Millman) says in its "Healthwatch" blog that the figure of 52 million represents an increase "from 38 million in 2001. More than half of lower-income adults went without insurance during 2010." Meanwhile, just one-quarter "of those who lost employer health insurance over the past two years were able to obtain other health insurance, the report found."

Modern Healthcare (3/16, Vesely) reports, "The result is that people are forgoing care and paying steep medical bills, the report found." According to Sara Collins, vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, "The healthcare reform law -- with insurance subsidies, rules on coverage denials and standard benefit packages -- could improve the situation. ... 'These reforms have enormous potential to begin solving the problems identified in this report.'" The Los Angeles Times (3/17, Dennis) "Booster Shots" blog also covers the story.

Craig A. Dietz, DO, MPH, Clinical Director, General and HIV Medicine, Kansas City Free Health Clinic and Chessa R. Nyberg, PharmD from the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, were published in the March 2011 Journal of The American Osteopathic Association. Their research is titled "Genital, Oral, and Anal Human Papillomavirus Infection in Men Who Have Sex With Men" and can be found at http://www.jaoa.org/content/vol111/3_suppl_2/

30 Kansas City Non Profit Professionals Selected to Participate in National Health Fellowship Program

March 8, 2011 --  The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Center for Creative Leadership in collaboration with the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF) has announced the selection of 30 community health leaders from greater Kansas City to participate in a national fellowship program. These individuals will participate in the RWJF Ladder to Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Community Health Leaders program, which aims to train the next generation of community health leaders.

Those selected include: Benjamin Nemenoff, Evaluation Manager, Kansas City Free Health Clinic

Thursday, March 17

St.Patrick’s Day

For the third year, the Kansas City St Pat’s Day Parade is traveling down Broadway right in front of the Clinic! Because of all the chaos, crowds, and closed streets involved with the parade, the clinic will not be seeing patients during the day. Staff will work that day but devote their time to office work. Evening clinics will be held and patients will be seen during the evening clinics.

Craig Dietz, D.O., Clinic Physician

Recognized by Ingram Magazine

The March Ingram Magazine recognizes Dr. Dietz as one of their Heroes in Health Care in the Professional Services Category. In addition to the excellent patient care that he gives Clinic patients, Craig has been very involved in the community. He serves as the Medical Director for the National Association of Free Clinic’s C.A.R.E. Clinics that have been held in 9 cities across the country seeing over 12,000 patients. He is also serving this year as the president of the Jackson County Osteopathic Association and sits on the board of directors of KC Metropolitan Medical Society. Last year he was honored by the American College of Osteopathic Internists (ACOI) for excellence in the practice of internal medicine. The honorary degree of Fellow in the ACOI was conferred during a ceremony in San Francisco witnessed by more than 400 of his peers, family and friends. Craig is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and HIV Medicine at KU and KCUMB and Adjunct Professor at UMKC School of Pharmacy. He was nominated by KCUMB and by us. Along with other Heroes in HealthCare, he will be recognized at a community breakfast in April.

March 1, 2011 - United Way Contributions

How your United Way contributions are changing lives.

Jose Gonzalez has been an optimist most of his life, believing everything happens for a reason and if we remain positive and are patient, things will generally work out.  A few years ago Jose’s optimistic outlook on life was challenged, but with the help of a couple of United Way-funded programs, Kansas City Free Health Clinic and the culinary arts program at Episcopal Community Services, his positive perspective has been restored, along with his faith and respect in people who care about others in our community.    Kansas City Free Health Clinic

Clinic Recognizing 40th

Anniversary, April 5!

April 5, 2011, will mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Kansas City Free Health Clinic. Our "theme" for recognizing this milestone is "Forty, Free, and Forward.' which means that the Clinic is 40 years old, it has always been free, and it will be here for as long as it is needed by the Kansas City Community. There will be a number of activities this year highlighting this milestone. Call 816-777-2762 if you have any questions.

 

Clinic Volunteer

Featured on KCTV-5

10:00 pm News Wednesday, February 23

Kevin Green, Clinic Volunteer since May 2007, will be featured on Channel 5's Faces of Kansas City, Wednesday evening. Kevin was nominated for this recognition as he has given over 800 hours of dependable and quality service to the Clinic and its patients.

 

Bloom Hits South Beach!

The 2011 Bloom party is in the works...

Save the date - April 8, 2011

 

In the Mediaa

• HIV infections rising in teen boys, young men

  

• THE UNINSURED: A Kansas City Survival Guide - KCPT

  

• MO Nearly Dead Last in Public Health Funding - KSHB