Clinic Offers Medical Services to Uninsured/Under-insured
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Dr. David Larsen and his wife have volunteered on several mission trips to Nicaragua. “There was a ‘feel good’ feeling of going down there and helping people in need,” said Dr. Larsen, founder and medical director of Faith Health Center. “But there was a ‘feel bad’ feeling when we came home and realized those same people live in our community.” In order to help here in West Tennessee, he founded Faith Health Center – a non-profit medical clinic where patients pay a minimal fee on a sliding scale based on their income. Over half of those patients receive little to no income, and many have on-going chronic illnesses. “We see patients who may have been seeing another physician when they had insurance,” said Dr. Larsen. “They lose their insurance, they lose their ability to get medicines, and they’ll go 6, 8, 9 months without any medicines for their blood pressure or diabetes.” With nearly 1,400 patients since the clinic’s opening in late 2010, Faith Health Center staff says it costs about $30,000 per month to keep the clinic running. “We only started getting income back in July, and we pay ourselves minimum salary – $7.25 an hour – so that we can get health insurance,” said Dr. Larsen. And in order to give help to the community, they also rely on help from the community. “We don’t know what God has in store for this coming year,” said Dr. Larsen. “Certainly, we have seen an influx of patients here at the beginning of the year, new patients. We struggle with how we’re going to see them all.” As the clinic’s name suggests, Dr. Larsen relies on faith to serve his patients, though faith is not a requirement to be served. “Faith from our standpoint as the staff is a strong Christian faith,” said Dr. Larsen. “Faith for the patient is just an acceptance of who we are.” Dr. Larsen says Faith Health Center needs donations to maintain growth, including volunteer help with nursing, patient care, and clerical work.
