Second Free Health Clinic Planned for Brevard County
Monday, August 1, 2011
By: Euna Lhee

August 1, 2011 | WMFE - A free health clinic opened in Palm Bay this spring to provide medical care for un-insured residents of Brevard County. Since WMFE first reported on the all-volunteer facility back in April, demand for its services has grown. The clinic thinks the need will only rise, as local space shuttle workers lose their jobs and their health benefits. The facility has added staff, and plans for a second clinic are already underway.

[Image: Sister Clara Kelly at Palm Bay's Space Coast Volunteers in Medicine clinic]

Sister Clara Kelly has Einstein-white hair and stiff knees. The 75-year-old is bursting with energy in her volunteer job as medical director of the Space Coast Volunteers in Medicine clinic in Palm Bay.

The clinic is free for Brevard County residents who earn less than twice the federal poverty level.

“We’re running totally on volunteers,” Kelly said. “Everything in this building is donated - all the equipment, all the pictures, and me.”

This afternoon, Sister Clara is seeing four patients. During the 45-minute appointments, she gives comprehensive physicals and talks to them about mental, social and even spiritual health.

Elaine Forlizzi came to the clinic because of her high blood pressure and a pain in her chest she’s had for the past three years.

“You learn to deal with it, and that’s sad,” Forlizzi said. “And now I’m at the point where I’m afraid that I’m going to die early because I’ve neglected myself not going to the doctor’s because [I have] no health care.”

She has been working as a certified nurse’s aid for almost three decades, but even though she works in the health care industry, Forlizzi has no health benefits. She makes less than $10 an hour taking care of people with Alzheimer’s in their homes.

“You know, they need me. I need to control myself and get there, make them happy,” Forlizzi said. “But then, I have to deal with my own stuff after I leave, so it’s hard.”

She said for the past ten years, the only time she’s seen a doctor has been in an emergency room.

Since the free Brevard clinic opened in April, the number of patients it serves each month has increased almost 30 percent.

“The demand was so great at the beginning that it crashed our phone system,” Executive Director Paul Ringenberger said. “And we had to install a new phone system to accommodate the number of calls that we were getting.”

Now, clinic appointments are booked at least a month in advance, and five more providers have joined the volunteer staff to keep up with the demand. Ringenberger has seen what he calls “typical America” coming through the doors – a mix of the unemployed and the employed, white collar and blue collar, young and old.

“We’re simply a safety net for those people who are out there doing the best they can, working very hard, but simply don’t have the resources to afford health care,” Ringenberger said.

He plans to open another free health clinic between Titusville and Cocoa early next year.  He picked that location partly so it would be convenient for the estimated 9,000 space shuttle workers, who are losing their jobs at Kennedy Space Center. He said he’ll call that clinic “Canaveral.”