THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290451
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NASSAWADOX LENGTH: 72 lines
Maria Morales brought her 9-month-old son to the migrant health clinic because he was anemic. She nursed little Norberto as Dr. Richard Andrews, the clinic's only doctor, counseled her in rapid Spanish.
The baby isn't getting enough solid food, Andrews said. He's too old to subsist on breast milk alone. Andrews prescribed iron. Then Morales told him about a health problem she'd had for a year, untreated. He prescribed something for that, too, and told her to come back.
If poor farm laborers on the Eastern Shore have a health problem, Andrews will treat it. At the clinic, which opened under new management last month, migrants can get help for everything from pregnancy to leprosy.
``The whole gamut,'' said Andrews.
For three years, Andrews served as medical director for the Virginia branch of Delmarva Rural Ministries, former administrators of the same clinic. But they fired him March 29, 1994, after he objected to the organizations' personnel policies.
Andrew's abrupt departure threw the Eastern Shore's health-care workers into a panic. His clinic prevented many farm laborers from becoming seriously ill and needing more expensive care. It kept a wave of Hispanic patients from swamping local doctors, where few workers spoke Spanish.
Last year, Delmarva Rural Ministries opened the Nassawadox Medical Center clinic 2 1/2 days a week. Andrews estimates that the hospital emergency room absorbed $100,000 in unpaid bills while the migrant clinic floundered.
``But it certainly was a lot better than not having a program here,'' he said. On April 1, Eastern Shore Rural Health System Inc. took over the clinic property and the job of serving the area's farm laborers.
It's a big job. Between June and September, the Eastern Shore's population swells by as much as 20 percent when migrants fill the 100 registered camps and an unknown number of unregistered ones as well.
The clinic is funded by about $400,000 in grants from the federal Bureau of Primary Health Care.
Maria Morales is a typical clinic patient. She lives with her husband in a labor camp near Eastville. They've been there two years, while five other Morales children stay in Mexico with their grandmother. About 70 percent of the Eastern Shore's migrants come from Mexico, said Andrews. Another 20 percent are Guatemalan.
Maria speaks no English, has no car or telephone. Her baby was diagnosed anemic by health department workers who referred her to the clinic, Andrews said, because they are cutting down on primary care.
Andrews said only 15 percent of the nation's migrant workers have access to health care.
``There's still a huge unmet need,'' he said. The success of the new clinic will be limited by its success at outreach. A round trip to camps in northern Accomack County can take as much as three hours for the outreach staff.
``You can only make so many trips in a day,'' Andrews said. He expects to see 30 to 60 patients a day in peak season. The 15-person staff includes nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, van drivers, outreach workers and a translator.
But only one doctor.
``I'm excited by it,'' Andrews said. He said the opportunity to build a program from scratch provides an outlet for his creativity.
``I've developed a certain expertise in this area. It's fun to try to make the clinic the best it could be.'' ILLUSTRATION: CANDICE C. CUSIC photos\The Virginian-Pilot
Maria Morales and her son, Norberto, had a two-fer visit to the
Nassawadox clinic recently. Dr. Richard Andrews, right, treated her
9-month-old son's anemia and prescribed a solution to a problem of
her own that had been bothering her for months.
Migrant worker Juan Jose Sanchez gets an eye exam at the recently
reopened health clinic on the Eastern Shore.
KEYWORDS: MIGRANT WORKERS EASTERN SHORE HEALTH CLINIC
MEDICAL CARE by CNB