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Affordable health care provider expands service
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Published: May 24, 2008
TARPON SPRINGS - A nonprofit provider offering affordable primary medical care to the needy and those without health insurance plans to construct a treatment facility on eastern Tarpon Avenue.
St. Petersburg based-Community Health Centers of Pinellas has been offering the service of one doctor in a location on Disston Avenue it shares with the Pinellas County Health Department.
The services of that family practice physician are well used, said Joseph Santini, Community Health Center director of business development. Many people in the Tarpon Springs-Palm Harbor area do not have or cannot afford health insurance.
Community Health Center gives them the opportunity to receive affordable health care from a physician or registered nurse practitioner, Santini explained.
This is not a free clinic, however, Santini stressed. Patients receive a bill and pay something so the facility can continue to provide this low cost health care, he said.
Anyone will be able to avail themselves of medical services at the center, including patients with medical insurance, he noted.
On May 29, the 23-year-old health care provider, which operates five locations throughout the county, will begin construction on an 8,000-square-foot state-of-the-art health clinic. The clinic will be adjacent to St. Timothy Lutheran Church.
The church, at 812 E. Tarpon Ave., is leasing the land to the health care firm at low cost, Santini said. The church has been welcoming and supportive of Community Health Center's efforts to provide affordable care to all in and around the Tarpon Springs area, he said.
Ronn Moldenhauer, the Lutheran congregation's immediate past president, said Community Health Center's program "dovetails perfectly" with the church's mission. That mission involves following the teachings of Jesus by bringing messages of help, hope and home to the community, Moldenhauer said.
The service is needed by a growing number of people and entire families who have fallen on hard times in North Pinellas and West Pasco, Moldenhauer said. The distressed times in which we live are evident in the fact that Sarah's Tent, the church's free lunch and dinner for the needy, is attracting more than 400 people, he said. The meals are served each Thursday, at noon and 5 p.m.
The minimal rent Community Health Center is paying the church will go into the congregation's community outreach program, Moldenhauer said.
Once it opens, in spring 2009, the health care facility will have a family care doctor and an advanced registered nurse practitioner. It will also have a pediatrician or nurse practitioner who specializes in pediatrics, Santini said.
Patients at the facility are also eligible to receive medications at a reduced cost from an in-house pharmacy.
The center's small clinic adjacent to the Health Department office at 301 Disston Ave. will remain in operation until the new facility opens.
A doctor or other health-care practitioner is available from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Thursday. Appointments can be made by calling 727-944-3828.
Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.
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