With a quick ribbon clipping by area dignitaries, the Charlottesville Free Clinic on Monday formally dedicated its expanded space and increased services.
The Rose Hill Drive clinic, which has provided the under-insured and uninsured with medical care since 1992, has increased the size of its pharmacy, medical suites and administrative offices and created the area’s first free adult dental clinic.
The clinic serves about 2,000 clients a year who do not qualify for other social medical programs, and has served an estimated 15,000 since it opened. Doctors and nurses volunteer their time.
U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, who made the official cut, said the volunteers make the clinic successful.
“The statistics demonstrate the number of people who have had their lives changed for the better through the clinic,” said Perriello, whose late father, Dr. Vito Perriello, volunteered at the clinic. “That’s what this place is all about and what is so great about the people of Charlottesville and Albemarle County who care enough [to volunteer].”
The clinic’s annual operating budget is $700,000. Its funding comes from state and local government grants and private donations.
A few years ago, clinic officials found themselves cramped for space in the Rose Hill Drive building they share with the Thomas Jefferson Health District. They started a $4.5 million fundraising campaign to build a new facility, but a change in tenants made it possible to expand the existing site.
The facility expanded from 1,400 square feet of dedicated space to 3,800 square feet. The clinic now has 12,000 square feet of space, including waiting and exam rooms shared with the health department.
“We got to stay in the same location and were able to budget about 10 percent of the original estimates for remodeling,” said Erika Viccellio, the free clinic’s executive director. “We wound up coming in under budget, at $430,000,”
Individuals who make $10,000 a year or less, and families of four making $20,000 or less, qualify for other reduced or free medical care services through Medicaid or through local hospitals, Viccellio said. The clinic’s services are available to those who make more than the federal limits but cannot afford to pay full price.
Area physicians formed the clinic after seeing patients putting off medical treatment because they could not afford it. By the time the patients sought treatment, they were often extremely ill.
“They were delaying care because they couldn’t afford it and they were suffering from it. The response from local [medical personnel] in setting up the clinic and in volunteering was amazing,” said Dr. Mohan Nadkarni, whom clinic officials credit as the clinic’s founding father. “It’s really taken off, but I have mixed feelings about it. I wish it didn’t have to be here. We had no idea in 1992 that 15,000 people would be served. We thought it would be a short-term solution.”
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