FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WAUSAU FREE CLINIC -  2021 ANNUAL REPORT

The year 2021 has been a momentous one for the FPC Wausau Free Clinic. Despite the pandemic, after getting our staff and volunteers immunized against Covid-19 in January, we opened on Thursday afternoons to serve anyone in the community who is low income, uninsured and in need of basic primary medical care. We now have over 20 Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) registered medical volunteers, including many Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) - Central Wisconsin medical students. Dr. Jeff Oswald, Marshfield Clinic - Stettin Center, continues to serve as our volunteer medical director. All services are offered at no cost to the patient, including limited medications and labs. Our clinic is located at First United Methodist Church on 3rd Street, sharing space with Catholic Charities Warming Center. As you may recall, we have served the homeless population for the past 3 winters. Our clinic has been open every week since, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Appointments are available through a dedicated telephone # (715-869-4922) or through our website: wausaufreeclinic.com. During this time, we have seen between 5 and 10 patients on average at each clinic. To our surprise, over 75% of patients seen have been Spanish speaking. This is primarily due to employment without health benefits. Translation has been a challenge, but we have managed with part time interpreters. As the Covid-19 pandemic subsides and word of mouth spreads, we expect the patient panel, which currently numbers in the hundreds, to grow into the thousands and become even more diverse. We received a grant last year from DHS to help underwrite clinic expenses. We will continue to pursue outside sources of funding. Since virtually all staff are volunteers (and what a blessing they are), our primary costs are associated with rent, office and medical supplies, pharmaceutical products, printing and advertising and related items. We have recently been “adopted” by Thrivent, who is providing support with donated medical supplies. This past year we have been fortunate to have received approval for assignment of both VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers through the Wisconsin Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (WAFCC) and Marshfield Clinic Health System. Dr. Jennifer Bañarez and Jatara Brown have helped us with administrative, marketing, technology, and community outreach duties. In the Spring, we also achieved accreditation status at the Bronze Level for the quality of our services from WAFCC. We are excited to be planning to move into the Community Partners Campus facility at 364 Grand Avenue in Wausau in late summer. Architectural and design plans are being finalized at this moment. We will be co-located with The Neighbors Place, the North Central Community Action Program, Catholic Charities, Wausau Area Mobile Meals, Blessings in a Backpack, and several other essential community services. One final area of activity for the FPC Wausau Free Clinic has involved partnering with the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy & Service (WIPPS) , the Hmong and Hispanic Network (H2N), the Hmong American Center, Asociación Hispaña Americana (AHA), the Wisconsin National Guard, AMI, area health systems, DHS, the Marathon County Health Department, and others to provide Covid-19 and influenza immunizations to hard to reach and vulnerable minority populations through community outreach clinics. Many of the recipients are Hispanic and Hmong. We have administered over 1,000 Covid-19 and nearly 500 influenza vaccinations in the past year through dozens of pop-up clinics targeted to predominantly minority populations. We are confident 2022 will bring even more opportunities for providing essential health care services to the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our community. Thank you for your support. May God bless you. 1/13/2022 (r)