FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WAUSAU FREE CLINIC -  2022 ANNUAL REPORT

This year has been remarkable in many ways. This was our second full year of serving low income, uninsured residents of the area in need of primary medical care.  We have been open to see patients every Thursday afternoon (except Thanksgiving and Christmas week). We have over 25 DHS registered health professional volunteers, several MCW medical students, and a dozen support volunteers working with us. We have two AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteers serving alongside us as well. Two new physicians joined us: Frank Rubino, MD and Carol Rave, MD. All services, including provider visits, limited labs and medications, are offered at no cost to the patient. This helps assure better compliance and doesn’t put the patient in the impossible position of choosing between rent/food/childcare/other necessities OR health care.

We moved into our permanent home in the Community Partners Campus on Grand Avenue in early December. This is a multi-agency, community social services resource center. What an incredible place this will be. Prior to that, we operated for two years in the lower level of First United Methodist Church. We are enormously grateful to our friends at FUMC.

During the past year, we provided over 420 visits to over 336 unduplicated patients. Many of our patients required interpreter services, which were provided in person, not through electronic means. This greatly enhanced accurate communications between patient and provider. English is not the native language of a substantial portion of our patients.

We applied for several grants last year to support our work. We were fortunate to be awarded a major grant from the BA & Esther Greenheck Foundation to allow for the hiring of a full-time clinic coordinator. Kim Shibilski, a long time WFC volunteer and trained paramedic, starts after the first of the year. We partnered with NCHC in obtaining a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to equip our clinic and the CPC with telehealth communication equipment to allow behavioral health assessment and counseling to occur remotely. The City of Wausau Community Development Department announced it will be recommending a grant to us in 2023 to support labs, medications, and translation services. In addition, we received several small grants from the Wisconsin Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to support offering breast & cervical cancer screening, self-monitoring of high-blood pressure, and telebehavioral health services to our patients. Finally, MCW awarded us a grant for supplies, thanks to medical student, Katie Ernste.

Our partnerships continue with numerous local agencies. This upcoming year, we plan to expand days and hours of service, develop an on-site dispensary, onboard several new volunteers (providers and support staff), and explore additional avenues of funding support for our health ministry.  If you would like to learn more about the Wausau Free Clinic, you can go to our website (www.wausaufreeclinic.com) or contact us at info@wausaufreeclinic.com. 1/12/2023