Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 3, 1993 TAG: 9312030404
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Sheila Roop, a Pulaski native who has lived in Fredericksburg for the past 15 years, moved back for the job.
``I've really missed this area,'' she said.
Since graduating from Morehead State University, Roop has worked as a store manager and a substitute teacher. She's also worked with special education children. ``I've done a little bit of everything,'' Roop said.
The clinic provides free acute medical care to area residents who are underinsured or, in some cases, have no insurance at all.
It has been housed at the Pulaski County Health Department on 4th Street, and has also been using the Health Department's equipment. A lot of people have no insurance, no doctor and ``they almost use the emergency room as their physician,'' Roop said.
These are often people who have been victims of job losses from places like the AT&T plant at Fairlawn, which closed several years ago, or the Radford Arsenal which has had cutbacks as the defense industry had retrenched.
Because the clinic provides services that would otherwise have to come through emergency rooms, she said, it saves both hospitals and taxpayers money.
Clinic volunteers begin seeing clients at 5:30 p.m. each Thursday and continue ``until we're through,'' Roop said. Sometimes that is as late as 9 p.m.
Clinic volunteers are in the process of renovating a classroom at the former Jefferson School in Pulaski to accommodate their growing number of patients.
It will be sometime in 1994, perhaps early spring, before the clinic moves to its new quarters.
The Free Clinic movement started on the West Coast during the 1960s. Today, Virginia is near the top among states providing such clinics, said Free Clinic President Mary Ann Wine.
``We are really out there on the cutting edge,'' she said. ``We see a need to expand and we hope the community will support us in this.''
The clinic still needs exam tables and ``just all of the things it's going to require to set up a clinic,'' she said.
The Free Clinic has been supported by private donations and the United Way since it was set up years ago by lawyer Phil Sadler along with several doctors and ministers.
Ruth Crispin has been the clinic's volunteer director for several years. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and lay people are among the volunteers that have made the clinic possible.
``We have a very dedicated group that works with it but, at the same time, we need more people because we are expanding, we are growing,'' Roop said.
Clinic volunteers refer patients to surgeons, urologists and other specialists as needed who will donate their services. Pulaski Community Hospital takes X-rays and reads them for free for clinic patients.
The clinic also provides medicine for its patients, some of which is donated and some that has to be purchased.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield donated $25,000 in both 1992 and 1993 to the more than 25 Free Clinics in Virginia, which is what is making it possible to hire a staff person and make the move to its own quarters.
As director, Roop will work in the areas of recruiting, fund raising, public awareness and grant-writing.
``We're not going to survive on corporate America,'' Roop said. ``We need these little contributions.''
The corporate donation is allowing the clinic to grow and renovate but, to sustain itself, it still needs the help of the community and civic organizations, Roop said. ``It was started with that philosophy, that we take care of our own, and I'm worried about us losing that.''
Memo: ***CORRECTION***