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Clinic growth continues
Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems continues to increase services available through the Meadowview Health Clinic. Current hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The number of patient visits has increased substantially from an average of 286 per month in 2008 to a total of 950 in March of this year. Totals have been consistently higher since addition of medical staff and the increase in hours.
In recent months patients have been asked to complete surveys and of those completed, 100 percent expressed satisfaction with the courtesy of the staff and cleanliness of the facility.
SWCHS director, Howard Chapman, said the organization plans to offer dental care beginning in September. The old T. K. McKee Hospital in Saltville is being renovated to serve as a regional dental care facility complete with the ability to craft dentures and dental appliances on sight, reducing their costs. As with other medical services, the dental care will be billed on a sliding scale based on the patient’s ability to pay. Regular transportation will be available from the Meadowview Clinic, as well as other sites, to and from the Saltville facility.
As of April, Chapman said all sites have implemented a 340-B Prescription Drug program in which participating SUN Rx pharmacies are able to fill prescriptions at a 50% discounted rate. He said that Glade Spring Pharmacy is the closest location where these discounts are currently available.
SVCHS hosted a focus group meeting of the Wounded Warrior program at Meadowview Community Center in April. The organization works to improve access to medical care for returning veterans.
Finally, after a long and frustrating series of having work performed and then re-done, a lower level storage area has been converted into a restroom near the waiting area and not within the actual clinic working area. The room is accessible to people with disabilities, and now has a nice new tile floor.
Tutoring offered by E&H students Inside the Meadowview Clinic a room was set aside as a children’s waiting room. As it was little utilized for the intended purpose, students from Emory & Henry College have put the room to use as a space in which they can offer tutoring free to youngsters. To find out more information about the tutoring available, contact the Appalachian Center for Community Service at Emory & Henry College.
Door-to-door community surveys conducted in March 2002 and in October and November 2004 documented that in Meadowview, Virginia, one in three families lack health insurance, 49% of residents are elderly or disabled, and 66% identify as low or moderate income. Twenty-one percent of residents travel thirty miles or more for basic health care services.
There are over four hundred Hispanic workers in the nine-county area surrounding Meadowview; the majority of these persons do not have access to healthcare. As an interim response to this healthcare crisis in the community, Crossroads Mobile Health Clinic, a faith-based medical service, provides once-monthly doctor visits to the community. Over almost three years, in more than twenty visits to Meadowview, the monthly clinic has treated over 400 persons, drawing from the immediate area as well as from a radius of over 75 miles. Through its work at the Meadowview site and at a site in Abingdon, Crossroads provides the only primary care available in Washington County to the uninsured. Ninety-eight percent of those persons receiving services at the Meadowview monthly clinic do not have heath insurance.
A sliding scale health clinic occupies the first floor. The Second floor of the center houses the offices of the Migrant Health Network and educational opportunities are to be offered by Highlands Educational Literacy Program and Mount Rogers Retional Adult Education Program.
There are meeting rooms and gathering places, including a large kitchen that is available for community events and social gatherings. The structure has been designed to recreate, as close as possible, the appearance of the old H.B. Maiden & Son building which previously occupied that site.
July 22, 2006 - GROUND IS BROKEN!
A community ground breaking ceremony was held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday July 22nd,
on the Meadowview Square. Construction is set to begin on a Health Clinic and Community Center Monday.
Read what United States Congressman Rick Boucher has to say about Federal Funding for Meadowview:
Virginia Health Care Foundation - Caroline Levine wins Unsung Hero Award
Thompson and Litton
The Meadowview Health Clinic will increase access to primary health care services for the uninsured and medically underserved. Central to this solution is the partnership with Southwest Virginia Health Systems, Inc. (SVCHS) to equip, staff, and administer a free and sliding scale health clinic. Prescription services will be provided through SVCHS’ partnerships with the indigent pharmaceutical drug programs and the 340-B Federal Drug Pricing Program. In addition to the Health Clinic, the facility will also house the offices of the Migrant Health Network, which works directly with Hispanic migrant farm workers and Hispanic day laborers in a nine-county region.
The citizens of Meadowview have spearheaded all of the actions taken to ensure that this facility becomes a reality. After identifying the need for a health clinic, the community has single-mindedly worked to establish it, including partnering with Crossroads Mobile Medical Mission to provide an interim response to the health care crisis. Citizens have agreed to take personal responsibility for a forty-year fixed-rate loan from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program to insure that enough funding is available for this construction. The Board of Directors of Meadowview First also is committed to having Washington County hold a twenty-year lien on the building to ensure that it serve its intended purpose long into the future.
Persons wishing to make donations to the work of Meadowview First, Inc. may do so by mailing their gifts to:
Meadowview First, Inc.
Post Office Box 530
Meadowview, Virginia 24361
All gifts are tax deductible, to the extent allowed by law.
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