Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s clinic is open for the semester, providing a variety of healthcare services free of charge for Athens locals who are underinsured or uninsured.
Carole Merckle, director of HCOM clinical operations and community health programs, said the clinic can provide free healthcare for members of the community through support from Heritage College and grant funding.
“We're a totally free clinic, so we provide those services to underserved (people),” Merckle said. “We don't turn anyone away.”
The community clinic is in operation 40 hours a week, Sherri Oliver executive director of HCOM community health programs, said. However, the clinic only offers certain services at specific times to best meet the needs of the people, Oliver said.
The clinic originally started in 1994 as a free mobile immunization clinic for children and was called Community Service Programs, Oliver said.
“Over the last 30-plus years, we've refined our focus,” Oliver said. “We've expanded some of our programs to serve adults, so the vast majority of our clinical services are offered to adults ages 18 to 64 who are uninsured or underinsured.”
Some of the services offered include primary care, women’s healthcare, sexual health and wellness, general health screenings and a diabetes clinic, among several others.
With these services, the clinic also has partnerships with other hospitals in the region to provide referrals and specialized care to its patients.
Oliver said the clinic collaborates with hospital systems across the region, including Ohio Health, Marietta Memorial, Fairfield Medical Center and Adena Health System, with a strong focus on women's health.
Specifically, Merckle said HCOM has mobile clinics that provide women’s health screenings, such as breast exams, pelvic exams and pap tests, in hospital settings or parking lots, allowing patients to receive same-day care if needed.
Keely Stockwell, an OhioHealth marketing and communications manager, said OhioHealth works closely with OU’s HCOM to ensure healthcare needs are met in the community, while also furthering medical education.
“OhioHealth does not view OU-HCOM’s Heritage Community Clinic as a competitor to OhioHealth Campus Care or our urgent cares but rather a complement to the healthcare services available in our community, and referrals are commonly made between the two organizations,” Stockwell said in an email.
Aside from its collaborations with hospitals, the clinic is also very involved with the community through partnering with school nurses in Southeast Ohio to provide immunizations for students and help perform state-mandated vision and hearing screenings, Merckle said.
The clinic also serves as a Southeast Ohio Food Pantry as well, Merckle said, because patients can focus more on their healthcare needs once they have their basic needs met.
“Our approach focuses on addressing the whole person because we recognize that health outcomes are influenced by both clinical care and social factors,” Merckle said.
Merckle said she is aware of the large food insecurities in the region and wants to give back to those in the community who are struggling to meet those basic needs.
“We try to break down those barriers to care … and help patients meet those basic needs so that then they can better focus on overall health and wellness,” Merckle said.
Although the clinic’s main goal is to serve members of the community rather than OU students, who are encouraged to have insurance, Merckle said, the clinic is an experiential learning opportunity for a variety of students with healthcare majors.
“We are what's considered a community clinical experience site for first- and second-year medical students,” Oliver said. “That's really an amazing opportunity for our medical students to get first-hand patient care experience, and that's been such an amazing partnership with our students.”
Although first- and second-year medical students engage the most in the clinical setting, the community clinics also provide learning opportunities for nursing and social work students who have a focus on healthcare, Oliver said.
“One of our roles is supporting that mission of educating students and letting them have those experiences going to clinical site rotations with us,” Merckle said.
Merckle said she thinks both students and physicians on staff within the community clinic are compassionate and caring, providing quality healthcare to members of the community who would otherwise have to go without it.
“We are really proud of the services that we're able to offer the community," Oliver said. “We really appreciate when we have the opportunity to do things like this, because it's a really incredible service, and we're just really happy to be able to provide it to people.”
