Mountain Home Christian Clinic creates free bridge to better healthcare

Ozark Countians – and everyone else from anywhere else – are welcome at the Mountain Home (Arkansas) Christian Clinic, a charitable medical facility that began 25 years ago in the minds of some area residents who participated in a medical mission trip to Brazil.

Members of the First United Methodist and Eastside Baptist churches in Mountain Home went to the South American country in 1999 to help provide free medical and dental care to Brazilians who couldn't afford, or couldn't get to, the healthcare they needed. 

“Those people got to talking on the flight back home about the work they had done in Brazil,” clinic medical director Brandi Sharp told the Times recently. “They said, ‘What we did there, we need in our own town.’ That was the seed that started the clinic”

When the men and women returned from the mission trip, they talked to others in their home churches – and to members of other churches as well. Then they called a meeting to talk about establishing a charitable clinic in Baxter County, Arkansas. It would do what those on the mission trip had done in Brazil: share the love of Jesus through healthcare.

“The response from the different churches was overwhelming,” Brandi said. 

As a result, the first patient was seen at the clinic on April 27, 2000. In the beginning, patients were seen at three different locations around Mountain Home, depending on the service needed, Brandi said. But in 2001, thanks to generous donations and contractors, and with support from the city, the clinic moved into its present 19,000-square-foot site, a former factory building at 421 W. Wade Avenue in Mountain Home.

Many Ozark Countians and other Missourians have taken advantage of the free services offered at the Christian Clinic. “Prior to Missouri taking the Medicaid expansion, we had a large number of clients from that area – nearly half our patients with the majority of them unable to obtain insurance,” Brandi said. “The numbers are a little lower now with changes to insurance in Missouri.” 

Gainesville resident Mary Huelsenbeck is one of many Ozark Countians who have benefited from the clinic’s help. After she lost her health insurance, Mary was unable to afford the $4,000 per month to pay for the insulin she needs to stay healthy. Without it, she ended up in an overnight stay in the hospital in Mountain Home.

When she was discharged, hospital staffers connected her to the Christian Clinic. “They helped me with my medicine,” Mary told the Times. “They gave me my insulin for free. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Joining the team

Two of the leaders who led the effort to create the Christian Clinic were nurse Maureen Brand and physician Paul Wilbur, who continued as the clinic’s first medical director until 2015, when Brandi and her husband, Brett Sharp, moved to Mountain Home from Pocahantas, Arkansas. Brandi, a clinical nurse specialist in adult care with a master’s degree in nursing from Arkansas State University, had worked for nearly 15 years at a rural community healthcare center in Pocahantas.

In Mountain Home, she connected with one of her ASU teachers, Dr. Sue McLarry, who had retired there. McLarry told Brandi about the Christian Clinic, and eventually Brandi attended a Thursday evening clinic session, thinking she would ask about volunteering. “Dr. Wilbur was working that night, and there were supposed to be four other providers. But none of the others showed up,” Brandi said.

Dr. Wilbur inquired about Brandi’s credentials and then asked her, “Can you see patients?”

“I said yes – and I think I saw 25 to 30 patients that first night,” she said.

Afterward, Wilbur called her into his office and asked, “Will you come back?’

Again, she said yes. 

“Hot dog! I’m going fishing,” Wilbur answered. 

“He was ready to retire, and he was looking for someone to take over,” Brandi said with a laugh, adding that nurse Maureen Brand, who had helped Wilbur establish the clinic and worked in it since its beginning, was moving away at that time as well. 

A few months later, Brandi became the clinic’s medical director; her husband is one of the three pharmacists who volunteer there. The volunteer team also includes seven dentists and three optometrists, plus several physicians as well as the pharmacists, nurses, a physical therapist, a prosthetist, a mental health counselor and others who volunteer to help the clinic’s patients. 

In addition to the medical professionals, another 100 or so nonprofessional volunteers keep the clinic running smoothly.

Help in many forms 

Sometimes the clinic helps patients by providing a medical exam or procedure, but oftentimes, clinic staffers help by assisting patients in finding affordable insurance so they can seek medical care from their own preferred providers. 

The clinic works with Baxter Health, the big, regional hospital in Mountain Home, to arrange things like x-rays and lab tests for patients who, for various reasons, are unable to get them elsewhere. Clinic staffers also help patients make hard-to-get appointments with busy medical professionals in the area, or they send patients to other facilities, such as the Baxter County Health Department, where specific free tests or procedures are provided. 

Clinic volunteers also work with the local Lions Club to arrange for eye exams and, in some cases, get free eyeglasses for the patients. When problems like cataracts or retinal detachment are diagnosed, the clinic helps patients find the treatment they need.

Currently, dental problems and mental health issues are the most common issues seen at the clinic, Brandi said. The clinic's dental service is limited to extractions done by local volunteer dentists, but clinic staffers also help patients find other affordable dental care when needed.

Helping those with mental health problems is more complicated. “It's so hard,” Brandi said. 

Every patient who's seen at the clinic is screened for mental health, she said. “Many patients come in stressed because they can't pay for things like the diabetic meds they need. Some may not realize how stressed they really are, and they may not feel comfortable talking about their situation.”

Others come to the clinic deliberately seeking mental health help. “Some say they were seeing a counselor but stopped due to their insurance running out. There's usually a six- to nine-month wait to see a psychiatrist. And if they can get an appointment, then they may have to start over again after having to leave their first mental health practitioner,” she said. 

Donations, grants and ‘little miracles’

The clinic is funded by donations from the community – individuals, businesses and “just about all the churches in town, all the denominations working side by side,” Brandi said. “They are the love of Jesus at work.”

Also, Brandi is constantly seeking grants that help fund specific services or pay for such things as salaries for the clinic's few paid positions. 

The clinic’s staff works with national and global organizations, such as Direct Relief, an outreach program that helps those who are uninsured or who have been hit by a disaster. Last year, the organization gave the clinic $200,000 worth of items to distribute – everything from baby formula and diapers to adult disposable briefs and colostomy supplies. 

The clinic has a fully functioning pharmacy operated by its three professional volunteer pharmacists. The clinic distributes most medications needed by its patients, with one big exception: “no narcotics,” Brandi said. 

Many of the needed medications are donated by drug companies or organizations; the rest are bought with the clinic's budget of donations. So far this year, Brandi said, the clinic's pharmacy, has distributed $639,000 worth of prescribed medications. Randy Fragoules is the clinic's pharmacy manager. 

Frequent little miracles help the clinic too.

For example, clinic patients can get free “durable medical equipment” – things like manual and motorized wheelchairs, crutches, orthopedic scooters, hospital beds, bedside commodes and even prostheses. Most of those items are donated by people and families who no longer need them; the items are carefully cataloged and stored in a large warehouse. 

Warehouse volunteers repair donated equipment that’s broken, even the donated prostheses. “We don’t throw anything away,” she said. 

The miracle happens when “someone will call, maybe they're crying and saying they need an electric scooter after some kind of orthopedic treatment. I might tell the person, ‘We don't have one right now, but give me your name and number, and I'll call you as soon as one comes in,’” Brandi said. “Meanwhile, maybe the pharmacist or another volunteer is on the other line with someone who wants to donate a scooter. Little things like that happen all the time. God provides what we need.”

Other times, Brandi and clinic volunteers help patients negotiate with insurance companies to get a better prosthesis or wheelchair than the one insurance or Medicare will pay for. 

The clinic works on these matters with an interdisciplinary approach, Brandi said. She sits down with the patient, a physical therapist and a prosthetist, and they discuss what the patient needs. Maybe the patient has applied for a new prosthetic leg, but the insurance company has denied the claim. 

“I get the team together, and we write a letter to the insurance company, explaining why we think this leg would be better for this patient at this time, based on their level of activity and what they can do,” Brandi said.

Amazingly, most of Brandi's appeals result in the patient getting what's requested. “Sometimes the insurance company asks for more information if I wasn't specific enough or didn't write what they wanted,” she said. “Then I might write about the patient's weight or pain level, how they're prone to potential accidents and falls or how motivated they are.” 

‘We don’t turn anyone away’

The one thing the clinic doesn't have is a patient-billing department. All services are free to the patients. That's why Brandi refers to the clinic as “the best-kept secret in town.”

That doesn't mean there's no paperwork; every patient is required to apply for insurance – with assistance from the clinic staff, if needed. “If they can afford healthcare and insurance, we help them navigate the system to get it,” she said. “We don't turn anyone away without offering some kind of help.”

For example, she said, some retired or elderly patients may have moved to the area from out of state and have insurance there “but can't get it here without a process,” Brandi said. “But they need their insulin or inhalers or whatever, and they're in a pickle because they're having to pay for it. We help them with that process of getting reconnected to their insurance.”

Other patients, she said, “may have assets, but they're cash poor and can't afford their medicine,” she said. Or maybe they “have no Social Security number or they're on extended work visas, and they have medical needs. We help them get the care they need.”

Sometimes that means referring the patient to the hospital for tests or to another facility or professional provider that works with the clinic to serve patients in need.  

The clinic also provides laundry and shower facilities for what Brandi describes as the area's “big homeless population.” Surprisingly, she says, “we can get insurance for most of our homeless population. But sometimes they may not need us for medical service but for help with compliance issues.”

For example, she said, maybe a patient ran out of their medication three months ago, but to get the prescription refilled, they have to see a doctor and get labwork, but to get that appointment, they have to pay $100 in overdue bills to the doctor's office. 

“We get all kinds of situations,” Brandi said. “In a case like that, maybe we can work with the doctor and the hospital and tell the patient, ‘OK, let's get you three months of meds and get your labwork done. That will give you three months to raise that $100 you owe the doctor so you can get the refill on your own next time,’” she said.

The clinic also helps people who are referred to them by the court or the hospital, including victims of domestic abuse or people who have lost everything in a fire, including their prescription medicines. 

‘The least of these’

“Everyone has a situation unique to them. We have cases that will shock you. They shock me, and I've been doing this since ‘99,” Brandi said. 

She refers to the clinic as “last-resort healthcare” and “a bridge to better healthcare,” where volunteers help patients find the most cost-effective way to meet their needs while showing them the love of Jesus.

“We serve ‘the least of these,’” Brandi said, quoting Jesus' words in Matthew 25:40, where he said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

****

The Mountain Home Christian Clinic, at 421 W. Wade Avenue in Mountain Home. Patients are advised to call 870-425-5010 for an appointment as different services are offered at different times. However, walk-in patients are always welcome. For more information, visit the clinic's Facebook page.