By BETTY RIDGE
Special Writer
TAHLEQUAH —
A decade ago, NEOHealth was a dream verging on reality.
Today, it’s a thriving organization, with five health centers in three communities, providing vital primary health care services to citizens in northeastern Oklahoma.
NEOHealth is preparing to celebration National Health Center Week, Aug. 8-14, with a series of activities that kick off today.
“Celebrating America’s Health Centers: Turning the Vision into Reality” is the theme for this year’s event, sponsored by the National Association of Community Health Centers. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the health centers program. One of the association’s goals is to provide the health care home for 30 million patients by 2015.
Health care centers nationwide now serve more than 20 million people in 7,000 communities, according to the website for National Health Center Week.
The mission of health centers is to provide affordable, high-quality, cost-effective health care to all people, regardless of the ability to pay. NEOHealth patients include people from all income levels, including those with private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and SoonerCare. Private pay patients are charged on a sliding scale, depending on their ability to pay.
Dr. Sharon Zang, CEO of NEOHealth, said the organization has achieved several goals this year.
“The Health Center has brought on two pediatricians, we have expanded the ENT program,” she said.
The organization also has been scored as being in an area with a shortage of health professionals. This enables it to recruit practitioners who agree to practice in underserved areas, in return for repaying their student loans or as national health scholars.
Dr. Matt Misner, who recently began practicing in the NEOHealth Pediatrics Clinic, is the organization’s first national health scholar.
“When I came, we didn’t have a score. Cherokee County hadn’t been evaluated in four years,” Zang said. “And it’s not just us that has benefited from it. Bill Willis Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Center also has benefited from it.”
NEOHealth also has added a nurse-midwife and a psychiatrist.
Last year’s national stimulus plan enabled NEOHealth to open its Westville clinic, which Zang said has been very well-received. It provides medical and mental health services in a town where few services were available.
“About 64 percent of the new patients don’t have insurance at that clinic,” Zang said. “We definitely need grant funds to operate.”
The clinic opened within 105 days of receiving the stimulus funds.
Zang said that, as a federal organization, NEOHealth has certain benefits.
“We have federal malpractice insurance, we have a little bit of grant funding. We can recruit scholars. We have a 340B drug program so our patients are able to get medication at a federal rate. We can provide low-cost lab services,” she said.
NEOHealth physicians and nurse-midwives at its women’s clinic deliver many of the babies in this area, as well as providing general health care for women, from teens to post-menopause.
NEOHealth officials credit local legislators, including Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, and Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah, for their strong support of assistance for the program.
Community members recall Ruby June Gifford of Lost City as a pioneer in providing rural health care in this area. She was one of four women who founded a women’s clinic at the old W.W. Hastings Indian Medical Center in 1975.
Gifford, a community health worker for the Cherokee Nation, helped many rural Cherokees obtain care, translating for them and providing transportation to see a doctor when they needed it.
In 1994, five area health providers joined to form the Cherokee County Community Health Coalition, the first rural health coalition in Oklahoma.
That organization, which still meets regularly and works to promote good health, now has more than 100 members.
In 1996, the coalition made an assessment of the county’s health needs. One of its recommendations was development of a rural health clinic.
Also during those years, people realized the need to provide health care to migrant and temporary workers in this area, many of women did not speak English. They were often reluctant to seek health care except in emergencies.
A clinic in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tahlequah provided weekly basic services, but was not enough to meet the need that was out there.
During the 1990s, Wagoner Community Hospital also partnered to operate a clinic in a temporary building on the west side of Hulbert.
In 2001, the Oklahoma Center for Rural Development was established at Northeastern State University. It studied establishing a rural health center. Because of the high interest and participation by Hulbert residents, that community was selected as the location for a clinic.
NEO Community Health Center was incorporated on Dec. 3, 2001.
The clinic opened its doors March 2, 2002, in the temporary building, without federal funding but with much optimism. The federal funds were received beginning in November 2002, and the organization has continued to grow since that time.
Dr. Sara Brown, one of the board members, said she had realized the need for such a facility for a long time.
“I think they’re absolutely essential because so many people are without good, reliable health care, and that’s what they’re all about,” she said of health care centers. “I’ve believed we’ve needed this sort of health care since I was a graduate student in social work. I was thankful that Hulbert was willing to take the ball and run.”
Brown said she uses the clinic’s services and believes they provide high quality care.
“We need a huge venue for all Americans to have access to health care,” she said.
Zang expects the organization to grow, with continued community support.
“I think in the future, with health care reform, health centers will play a strong role in enabling people to have primary health care at a reasonable rate,” she said. “Those without insurance can come get routine preventive healthcare without avoiding it and going to the emergency room.”
She wants National Health Centers Week to increase the awareness of the resources available locally and realize the clinics have good mechanisms to deliver health care.
“Our board has made a commitment to the good care of our people and will continue to deliver more services our residents need access to. We hope to keep expanding,” she said.
Health Week activities
In connection with National Health Center Week (and afterwards), NEOHealth plans the following activities:
• Aug. 3, Kid Connection Back to School event, giving out pencils and glue sticks until 3 p.m. at Kid Connection.
• Wednesday, Aug. 4, Proclamation with Mayor Ken Purdy, 9 a.m., Tahlequah Armory Municipal Center.
• Aug. 9, Hulbert back to school, 4 to 8 p.m., haircuts, school supplies, other activities at Hulbert School Auditorium.
• Aug. 11, 7 to 9 a.m., free health screenings at NEOHealth Pediatric Clinic, 407 Daisy Drive, Suite A (behind Tahlequah Walmart Supercenter). Free screenings will include lipids tests, glucose tests and BMI tests for children and adults; scoliosis testing for children; pregnancy tests for women and teens; and immunizations also will be available (to be billed to insurance companies) as supplies last.
• Aug. 16, Northeastern State University Merchant Mall, 6 to 9 p.m. at NSU, giving out cups and pencils.
• Sept. 7 through 10, Cherokee Elementary School Pre-K physicals, time to be determined.
• Nov. 2, Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours open house, 4 to 6 p.m. at Pediatric Clinic.
