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CLINIC A PROJECT OF CHURCH, DOCTORS, HOSPITAL
The medical clinic at
Beacon Baptist Church started by offering health screenings to the
immigrant laborers who live nearby. But the patients were more
interested in getting tended for their injuries than learning about
cholesterol levels or their risk for diabetes.
"Even though we would announce it was a screening for colon
cancer, people would show up with cuts, bumps and bruises. It was
obvious what we needed was a walk-in clinic," said Dr. Agustin
Castellanos, a Palm Beach Gardens neurologist who is considered the
program's chief of staff. The clinic is a partnership with local doctors and nurses,
Jupiter Medical Center, the Volunteer Health Care Provider Program
and Beacon Baptist Church, which offers the building and pays for
the utilities, Maggard said.
When the clinic opened a year ago, it was mostly the men who
came, Castellanos said. The guys who happened to be waiting on
Center Street to be plucked for a day's work would come in if they
didn't have any luck finding a job.
"I've seen it grow," Castellanos said. "It used to 25- to
45-year-old thin guys doing yard work. Now, babies are being brought
in and grandmothers."
Before school started, the clinic offered children's exams
and recently, immigrant women received women's medical services that
included mammograms at a volunteer doctor's private office.
Maggard and Castellanos said the clinic not only sees
patients on site but has arrangements with specialists for free care
in their offices as well as free lab tests at Jupiter Medical
Center, which also provided equipment.
Along with Castellanos, family practitioner Dr. David
Rosenberg and nurse Tina Mills are at the clinic on most Saturdays.
If he's the acting chief of staff, Castellanos said Rosenberg
is "chief of yelling at doctors when they don't show up," and Mills
basically runs the show, not only drawing blood but filling out
paperwork and serving as secretary.
The four hours a week at the clinic is a meaningful reminder
to doctors and nurses about why they decided to go into medicine in
the first place, Castellanos said.
Castellanos was involved in trying to get a clinic started
with another organization that was in discussions with Jupiter
Medical Center.
"We were having meetings and meetings and meetings but
nothing was happening. Finally the church people, they came to a
meeting and within two months of that, they had the space and we
started the screenings," Castellanos said.
The doctors get sovereign immunity from malpractice lawsuits
through a government program and because the medical services are
free, the doctors don't have to worry about insurance forms and
other paperwork.
"You get a pretty good chance of just practicing medicine.
You don't have somebody calling you with some story that their
insurance doesn't cover something or worrying about a form or a
referral," Castellanos said.
The clinic hopes to offer more services and reach out to more
people. Maggard said the clinic would like to add dental.
Castellanos said he wants the clinic to provide medical services not
only to the immigrant community nearby but others who are
impoverished and either uninsured or under-insured.
"The doctors, medical center and the church, it all seems to
come together and we do it pretty well," Castellanos said.
- stephanie_smith@pbpost.com Dr. Daniel Boss (left) listens with a stethoscope as Maria
Morales breathes. Morales was accompanied to the CARELINK
clinic by her daughter, Maria Diaz (right).
Copyright (c) 2003 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc. | |
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