The Archdiocese of St. Louis plans to open its first health clinic early next year in Old Mines, Mo., in Washington County, in an effort to improve rural health care.
The free clinic will offer primary care, chronic disease management, mental health care and social services — including housing and employment resources — for people without health insurance. The clinic is expected to host about 2,000 medical visits a month.
“People in poverty face a number of struggles beyond access to health care,” said Theresa Ruzicka, president of Catholic Charities of St. Louis, a partner in the clinic. “We’re going to them. We will travel to different parishes and set up shop on the parish grounds, and people will be able to come and get served.”
After starting at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Old Mines, the archdiocese plans to add another parish every six months in Washington or Franklin counties for the mobile clinic to visit.
People are also reading…
A 40-foot mobile trailer will house the clinic run by Dr. Sister Marie Paul Lockerd and volunteer nurses and other staff members from Catholic hospital systems Ascension, SSM Health and Mercy. Lockerd previously worked in a rural clinic in Jackson, Minn., through the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich.
The archdiocese’s Rural Parish Workers is another partner in the project along with the St. Louis-based Catholic health systems.
Washington County is one of the poorest in the state, with a poverty level of 22 percent among its 25,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census. The county has the highest percentage of uninsured adults in the St. Louis region, at 17 percent, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Washington County ranks 109th out of 115 Missouri counties in health outcomes, including longevity and quality of life, the foundation reports. Franklin is on the healthier side, ranking 16th.
At least five rural hospitals in Missouri have closed since 2010. The closures are most common in the 14 southern and Midwestern states like Missouri that have not moved to expand Medicaid coverage to more residents through the Affordable Care Act.
