TYLER, Texas (ABP) — A trip to the doctor can be financially catastrophic for some people — particularly the more than 45 million Americans who lack adequate health insurance.
Bethesda Health Clinic, a faith-based primary-care clinic started by First Baptist Church and other churches in the Tyler, Texas, area, is addressing the problem in East Texas by offering affordable health care in Christ’s name.
“In our community, there [were] already pediatric, OB-GYN and Medicare clinics established. So our real focus was to develop a quality clinic for those who are working and uninsured,” said John English, the clinic’s executive director. Many people “are working hard, but they just happen to work for a business that doesn’t provide insurance.”
The need for a primary-care clinic was apparent when First Baptist Pastor Mike Massar encountered a doctor at the University of Texas Health Clinic in Tyler.
“She came to me and asked if she could use one of our Sunday school rooms to hold a clinic, because it was her calling to help people who did not have health insurance. I was very intrigued by that,” Massar said.
The doctor took Massar on a tour of local clinics. He recalled his shock at the lack of dignity and care offered to needy patients. Massar presented the idea of opening a clinic to the deacons at First Baptist, and a group toured a medical facility started by a church in Memphis, Tenn. After seeing the clinic, the group knew First Baptist needed to serve the community in this way.
“With the rising health costs, it becomes one of the real issues of this time,” Massar said. “And it is just following the commands of Jesus when he talked in Matthew 25. It seems to be a very important issue for Jesus.”
Because Massar wanted the health-care ministry to be a community effort, he invited other churches in the city to take part in the clinic. Organizers created a board of trustees and raised funds to renovate a building that the church leases for $1 a year. Local doctors donated supplies for patient rooms and the pharmacy. Business leaders and lawyers from First Baptist’s congregation helped with the paperwork and legal aspects.
By 2003, clinic doctors were seeing patients two nights a week. During the next few years, the clinic gained more volunteers and was able to open five days a week, offering additional appointments two nights a week and on Saturday mornings as needed.
Operated by medical and non-medical volunteers, the facility sees patients ages 16 to 64 who work or live in Smith County. Fees are based on a sliding payment scale up to $20. Patients who need care the clinic does not offer are referred to specialists who donate their time and services.
Several churches voluntarily run Saturday clinics and health fairs to provide medical care and information about preventative medicine. The clinic also offers healthy-living classes, a prescription-drug program and diabetes-education classes.
“I’ve lived in several places, and this is one of the most wonderful things I have seen happen in a community — where people can go for help and feel dignity and respect,” said Elaine Osburn, coordinator of the patient-advocate program.
Workers at Bethesda want “to meet their medical needs, but that is not the only need we hope we could meet in the patients. We want them to know that this is a place that spiritual needs can be met,” Osburn said.
To do this, Osburn and other volunteers are available when patients need to talk or pray with someone. The volunteer staff meets daily in the clinic’s chapel to pray for patients’ needs.
“We want to be able to minister to their physical and spiritual needs,” Massar said. “We show people that we love them. We try to model out the love of Christ before we start talking about it. We don’t make people jump through hoops in order to get help.”
Because of its success and growth, the Bethesda clinic has become an example for ECHO — Empowering Church Healthcare Outreach — a nonprofit organization based in Fort Worth that helps churches start healthcare ministries. ECHO takes the concepts, problems and successes that Bethesda experienced and helps other churches maneuver through the information to start their own clinics.
First Baptist “has learned so much in their efforts that they are willing to share,” said Tim Dammon, ECHO executive director. “But they really don’t have time to do that. We learn a lot from them, and then we take that load off of them and share it with others. We help them understand the process to start [a clinic] — all the insurance requirements, malpractice coverage and recruiting volunteers and doctors.”
Because ECHO is fully funded by the John and Nancy Snyder Foundation, it is able to offer services to churches free of charge. A consultant is assigned to each church interested in the ministry and helps them through the 12- to 18-month process necessary to open a clinic.
ECHO has helped 10 churches start health-care ministries. Dammon’s goal is to start 10,000 primary-care clinics by 2030 and provide quality medical care for more than 20 million uninsured people in the United States.
Providing health care is not a choice for Dammon — it’s just following Jesus’ commands.
“It is so clearly an extension of the gospel,” he said. “Jesus himself clearly called the church to be engaged with the poor and to meet needs. When I sit down and talk to pastors, there has not been one who has said that this is not what the New Testament church ought to be doing. I think that is what makes me so passionate about this.”
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