We had a really good week at the health center this week. I am getting much more comfortable doing my new job. Robert is also starting to be able to see more and more patients. We have a little system or two in place, which I am sure are subject to change next week but we are beginning to develop a little bit of a flow :) Its nice.
I do have some good stories from this week. Some funny, some good, and some sad but encouraging. Enjoy.
Thursday, Robert got an urgent call from the high school. They have not been able to have a football team for several years. Its so sad to me because sports were such a big part of my life growing up and in a lot of ways, they are completely inaccessible to these kids. But, this year there will be a football team. In classic Christ Health Center style, Robert got a call from the school on Thursday that the entire football team needed physicals to be able to play their first game on Friday :) So, the entire team shows up, and Robert called another physician friend, and they got the entire football team seen. It was fun yesterday driving in to work because the kids wear uniforms to school, black pants and white polos, and yesterday mixed in, were a few football jerseys and black pants. Change is in the air!! I’ll have to get back to you to let you know how they did last night. It almost doesn’t matter though. I am just thrilled that they are developing their football program again.
Currently, we are still doing free pregnancy testing. I had a young girl come in this week and her sister thought she needed a pregnancy test. I started talking to the girl alone and found out that she has had as many sexual partners as she is old, that she had been treated two weeks prior to her visit with us for an STD in the ER, had had sex again since having her STD, and then she told Robert that more than half of the guys she had sex with “truly loved her.” My heart broke for her. We spent a lot of time with her and now Truth In Love is going to help us out with her. She is actually excited about seeing them. I am cautiously looking forward to see what changes happen in her life.
I also had a lady come in to see me this week that had a colostomy. I won’t go in to too much detail because most people get grossed out by this sort of thing, but I good comparison would be to say that getting colostomy supplies is like trying to find a woman a good bathing suit. Its hard! She comes to me needing new supplies but she doesn’t know the size or kind of anything she is wearing. So, I decide maybe I can call her supply company and see what she has been getting. I asked asked her what their number is and she spouts of quickly “1-800-999-9999.” So I go and I dial the number and I hear “Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . .” and I hang up. So, I look at the number and dial it again, “Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . .” At this point, I am starting to think this is funny because this little old lady just very quickly, without looking it up, gave me a singles hotline number. So, I am thinking this lady is lonely and is hanging out on the singles hotline but I decided to give it another shot and ask her what the number was again. And she says “1-888-999-9999″ (istead of 1-800 . . .). So, I told her what she had done. She just laughed. I asked her if she was looking for a special friend :)
Also, this week, we had a dental sales rep, who had had people over over the weekend and had extra food left over. He decided that he would bring lunch over to our parking lot. It was so fun. He set up chair and we sat outside and ate and people from the neighborhood just started showing up for the free food. We just sat and talked. Some people simply came and got food and left. Others, sat and talked with us and told us what they needed and how much they appreciated the health center and dream center. A GED class may come of that day from one lady’s expressed need. I really enjoyed that.
Finally, we have hired two new people. Lindsey Pimentel, who I wrote about a while ago, left to start school again so a huge hole was left that needed to be filled. We hired two of our most faithful nurse volunteers, Karen and Sirena, to job share a MA/nurse position. I am so excited because I enjoy working with both of them. They are completely different from each other but they both do such a good job. I am excited about having them come be a part of our little growing team.
Finally, look at what I got to do this past weekend! Could anything be more fun? I got to spend time with some of my dearest old friends and meet some of their children for the very first time. It was such a wonderful trip.
Much love my friends!
I’ve not been a good blogger lately but I have a good reason. I promise. I have been playing :) . . . hard!
For those of you who haven’t heard, I just got to spend the week, and my 30th birthday, in Huntington Beach, CA, with my aunt and one of my roommates. The trip, again, was more than I expected. We rode tandem bikes from Huntington Beach to Newport, got 2 hour long pedicures, napped on the beach, went to an Angel’s baseball game and got to sit, and eat :), in the diamond VIP section, went to California Adventure for free :), took surfing lessons again but this time was successful, and went kayaking off Balboa island. The whole trip was wonderful!
If you are interested, you can see a slide show of our pictures at Snapfish. Somehow, our attempt to get pictures with the sea lions didn’t make it to snapfish. I am going to try and fix it though. They are great. Stacey was afraid that we were going to get attacked by the sea lions which made it even more fun and funny for me.
I got back to work and was pleased to find that everything worked perfectly fine without both me and Lori being there. Our real sliding scale was started while I was gone; meaning that our patients are actually charged for their visit based on income. It is a really good thing because it is one of the requirements that we need to meet to become a federal qualified health center. This will enable us to keep our cost of service low and once the pharmacy is running, it will allow us to purchase stock for the pharmacy at a much lower cost.
Aside from that, this week was a good one at the health center. Josh Menendez, a fourth year medical student, finished his month long rotation with us. He is going on to do Neurosurgery and will be an excellent physician one day. Emily Whitty, a UAB nurse practitioner student, started back with us again for her clinical time. She is so wonderful to have and does a great job caring for our patients. Lindsey Pimentel finished working with us. She is starting back her sophmore year at Samford. I was sad to see her leave. She has been such a huge help to me and she is bilingual so she has helped me take very good care of our hispanic patients. I scheduled a hispanic patient for Wednesday next week and realized the Lindsey won’t be there and I just looked at her and said “What am I going to do?” She is going to come in and translate for me that day. If you know of anyone that is bilingual and has time, we desparately need a spanish interpretor. I also am going to have a Samford nurse practitioner student that is going to start a clinical rotation with me some time soon. So, alot of movement and change this week but it has been good.
Now, I am sitting in a Hampton Inn in Nashville. One of my roommates from Nashville who is also a very good friend, is having a baby shower here this weekend. It is so exciting! There were four of us that lived together here. Now everyone is married and only one of us still lives in Nashville. The last time we were all together was several years ago for one of their weddings. We are going to get to hang out together all day today! I will definately post some pictures soon.
Fortunately, after this weekend, my life will slow down again and settle back in to “normal.” I am ready to slow down a bit but this has been a great summer.
Much love my friends! ( . . . and another one from Cali :)
I had the most wonderful vacation. It lived up to all my expections and was so relaxing and fun. I will post more soon but am already dreaming of my next getaway. :)
Much love my friends.
So, Robert got to go to the beach with his family this week. I was very glad for him. He has worked so hard and his family has been so supportive. I was happy for them to get to be truly away from work and spend time together as a family.
. . . But, that meant that I was the only provider at the health center this week. I was nervous because we have been so busy since the grand opening. I made it though. I saw more than 60 patients this week and I saw every single one of them. I am so proud of myself. For the most part, it was a good week too. We have a 4th year medical student working with us for the month and our pharmacist started this week. They are both doing a wonderful job.
But now, it is my turn to get to go on vacation. I am going back to California to stay with my Aunt again. I went a couple years ago and it was one of the best vacations that I have ever been on. I love sitting in her house in the mornings with the cold ocean breeze blowing through, drinking a hot cup of coffe and having no where that I have to be. Last time we took surfing lessons, so I am going to see if I’ve still got the skills to pull that off. Its kind of like skiing though. It wears you out terribly quickly! We are going to see an Angels game, hang out at the beach for a few days, heading to San Diego and SeaWorld, and probably going to California Adventure. Hopefully, it will be another great vacation. The top picture is of the beach near Aunt Tricia’s! :)
So, I do have a few good stories from this week.
Yesterday, I put my stethascope on a lady’s chest, and she looked at me and said “I think you are listening to my phone.” Then she pulled her bra open and looked down and said
“No, its way down there.” :)
Another lady was telling me about her life and how her mother had died when she was a little girl and that she had made bad decisions for so much of her life. She looked at me and said “I kept seein’ those stop signs and kept goin’ right on around ‘em” :)
Finally, Jason and I were talking to a guy yesterday and he was talking about how he only prayed when things going wrong but once they started going right he didn’t so much care about God anymore. Jason explained to him that that is why we are called sheep in the Bible . . . because we like to wander. He looked at Jason and said “Well, I wish God would put up an electric fence for me then!” :)
Hope you all are enjoying the end of your summers.
Love to you all!
So, the grand opening officially did what it was intended to do. Woodlawn is now very aware of our presence. We were also on the news and in the paper and so those with little or no insurance and/or income are coming out of the woodwork to be seen. They have been referred to us by friends, doctors, the television, and newspaper, family, etc.
To put it in to perspective, we saw 400 patients in 3 months and then saw 80 patients in one week. That’ almost 20 percent of our entire business in one week. We are going to see more than that this week.
It has been good though. I still truly love the people that I am working with. We do need more volunteers though. I am sure that almost anything you want to do, we have a need for. If you are interested, email kpenuel@christhealthcenter.org or info@christhealthcenter.org. We can get you hooked up with the job for you :)
Also, the dream center is about to start doing a whole lot more with the kids in the neighborhood. I am really excited about this and wish I had time to go play with them. If you like working or playing with kids, we also have the job for you :)
I’ve been trying to think of any good stories to tell but so much of the past two weeks has been spent adjusting to the huge change in how we practice and operate our office. Hopefully I will have a good one for you next week.
Much love.
So, we have definately seen more action this week from our grand opening. We set our new record of patients seen in one day on Monday. It has been quite a busy week. Needless to say, I am extremely greatful for my day off today.
Here’s a video from ABC that was run on Sunday night after the grand opening. Hope you enjoy it.
Matters of Faith 7-19 – Christ’s Clinic
Much love and many thanks.
So, I begin my post today with beautiful flowers as usual. I did not intend for this to be a trend but somehow that is what it has become. Nonetheless, this isn’t just another picture of pretty flowers . . . these flowers are in the front garden of Christ Health Center!! Can you believe that?! We have a garden! And it is gorgeous.
Here’s taking a step back . . .
Yesterday’s Woodlawn festival was amazing. I am afraid that my words are going to fall short here in explaining the day. There were thousands of people that showed up, young and old, white and black, rich and poor. And everyone was together for one purpose. All I can say is that it was much like preparing for and going to a wedding of someone you love.
Here are some pictures of the day, mostly taken by my sister.
Almost the entire family with Dr. Robert Record
Side entrance to the Dream Center
The main entrance to the Dream Center
And some of the people that came out for the day . . .
Thanks again to everyone who came. It really did mean so much to me. And to those of you who couldn’t come, you are still welcome to come down and see the place.
I love you all. You are each so dear to me.
Church of the Highlands opens Birmingham mission center in abandoned Woodlawn Fire Station
Hal Yeager/Birmingham News; Nurse practitioner Amelia Morton talks with patient Darel McElroy in the Christ Health Center in Woodlawn.
Last year, the long-vacant Woodlawn Fire Station at 5701 First Ave. North was boarded up and showing evidence of 15 years of abandonment.
Today, it’s sparkling from a recent face-lift and abuzz with activity as the Church of the Highlands prepares to dedicate it as the operations hub for The Dream Center, the focus of the congregation’s missions and inner-city outreach programs.
“This is a coordination point for all Church of the Highlands ministries and mission projects,” said Missions Pastor Scott Montgomery.
The dedication ceremony will be part of a community festival along First Avenue North in Woodlawn today from noon to 4 p.m., with free food, free shoes and clothes, a garage sale, self-help information and health booths and a children’s play area with inflatables, games and prizes. Church of the Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges will cut the ribbon on the Dream Center at 2 p.m.
The church hopes the event will draw attention to Christ Health Center, a clinic that opened March 24 in the renovated former Eastern Health Center building. The Birmingham megachurch bought the clinic building at 5720 First Ave. South and the adjacent fire station from the Jefferson County Health Department for $300,000.
It invested more than $1.7 million to modernize the clinic and renovate the stone and brick firehouse, which was built in 1927 with a turret and a spiral staircase. All the church’s community outreach ministry programs will run out of the fire station, which will become a hub for church members to serve as mentors, tutors and community volunteers. There are already 31 Bible study groups from the church involved in volunteer programs in the neighborhood, Montgomery said.
Church of the Highlands, which has its main campus on Grants Mill Road and weekly attendance of more than 10,000 at its four branches, has joined a growing movement of megachurches that are reaching out through inner-city health clinics.
“What we’re doing has really drawn a lot of interest from the medical world and the faith world,” said C. Ramsey Duck, administrator of Christ Health Center. “The church is using health care as an inroad to the community.”
The clinic takes all types of insurance, and works with the non-insured on a sliding ability-to-pay scale, he said.
“To see this all come to life is wonderful,” said Carolyn Cobb, a Woodlawn neighborhood activist and member of the Birmingham Board of Education, as she walked through Christ Health Center. “It’s a much-needed service.”
Duck said the clinic has already treated more than 400 patients.
“It’s grown a lot faster than we expected,” said nurse practitioner Amelia Morton, who treats patients along with physician Dr. Robert Record, founder of Christ Health Center and associate pastor of Church of the Highlands. Although it was launched by Church of the Highlands, the clinic will run as an independent nonprofit agency.
“We see quite a few people who haven’t seen a doctor in awhile,” Morton said.
The clinic also has a counseling center. “Mental health issues have been a huge need,” Morton said.
Duck said the clinic staff hopes to add a pediatrician and an obstetrician in the next year or so. By September, Christ Health Center will be offering dental services, Duck said. “Our goal is to offer as many services as possible under one roof,” he said.
The clinic fills a void left when the Jefferson County Health Department opened a new Eastern Health Center at 601 West Blvd. near the golf course in Roebuck, and closed its Woodlawn location.
“They had a lot of patients who were true walk-ins,” Duck said. “They walked from their homes. They don’t have a car.”
Many of those people now use Christ Health Center and are glad to still have a clinic in their neighborhood, he said.
Hodges founded Church of the Highlands in 2001 with 34 adults meeting in a home. Within two years, the church had grown to more than 1,000 people attending services at Mountain Brook High School. The congregation moved into a 2,400-seat sanctuary on a $15 million campus on Grants Mill Road in 2007.
Hodges’ sermons are fed by satellite to services at branch campuses in Riverchase, Tuscaloosa and Auburn.
The Riverchase location also features a Spanish-language service with a Hispanic pastor preaching a version of Hodges’ sermon.
The church may eventually have a branch service in Woodlawn, Montgomery said.
“We want to see the whole community revitalized,” he said. “We want to pour our resources into reaching people.”
The renovated firehouse will be a symbol of that commitment, Montgomery said.
“We don’t need a building to do ministry,” he said. “But we’re investing in the community. This tells you we’re here to stay.”
Hello my sweet friends.
I have waited until later today trying to think of what I want to say in this post. For some reason this post has been more difficult for me to write. I’m not sure why either because things have been bustling at the health center this week.
We are finally having our grand opening, ribbon cutting, and community festival this weekend. The designers and painters and construction workers and landscapers have all been working constantly trying to get things ready for Saturday. We have gotten wonderful art work to hang in the health center and dream center. They are using both buildings as galleries for the art. They have also been doing some beautiful landscaping outside both buidlings. I have to admit that I am a bit jealous of all the beautiful gardens that we are going to have. I would love to have them here at my house. At least, they are where I will be able to enjoy them.
Our patient is also steadily increasing and as is our ability to see patients which both are obviously good things. We are probably averaging close to 20 patients daily now. I am a little frightened by what our official opening is going to do to how many patients we are seeing daily but then again, the vision has alway been to continue building and expanding as needed so that these people are cared for.
I have loved, and more than that, I just don’t have words to explain, having counseling available in our building. They have taken a heavy load away from me and I am very well aware of the loss of that load. It has freed me up to provide for the physical needs of the people we see and know that their emotional needs can be helped if they want it. I have been surprised at how far down people are willing to go before they will go seek help; even if it is just moving to a different room in the same building. I had one of the physicians at our other office tell me that if you can get an addict to come back the next day to get help, then you eliminate over half of the people. It is so true and I see it even more now that we have resources to be able to help these people. A lot of them just don’t want help, or don’t want to put forth the effort to change, are just afraid. I’m sure there is a myriad of other reasons they don’t go as well.
So, here’s another quote of the week. This one again is rated R, so proceed if you wish. I have seen quite often in my job that women use their bra as storage. I don’t know how many phones have rung and they stick their hand down their shirt and out comes a phone. So, I have just gotten used to seeing odd looking breasts covered with clothes. (It is part of my job examine people and I am looking at them from head to toe while I talk to them.) So yesterday, I had this lady that I noticed that one breast looked significantly larger than the other one. This can be a sign of breast cancer; to have one breast that has changed sizes or that looks a good bit differently than the other one. So, I noticed this and asked her first, “Do you have anything in your bra?” She looks at me, pulls her shirt down and her bra out in one swift moved revealed her breasts, and says “Naw, nothin’ but these big ole’ titties.” Once again, I gotta just keep movin! So on we went talking about feet.
I would love for ya’ll to come on Saturday if you can. We will still be there after Saturday and you are still welcome to vist but Saturday should be a lot of fun and it is supposed to be a beautiful day.
Here’s the flyer and the link (http://www.churchofthehighlands.com/dreamcenter/ ) for Saturday.
Much, much love.
there is always hope
This week has felt like those first few weeks at the health center again. I was met Tuesday morning, although pre-warned, by the front entrance and main lobby being officially opened to the public and by everything from the previous nurses station moved into random piles of papers in the new nurses station along with a busy morning of patients. I have to admit, it won’t go down as one of the most enjoyable days of my job. We didn’t know where anything was and we were having to initially use the old exam rooms because the new exam rooms weren’t quite ready to be used. It was chaos!
Yesterday, although more organized, we saw 16 patients along with Truth In Love’s 7 patients that they saw. It was terrbily busy. We also had ABC news in doing another story about the health center . ABC is also going to be at our grand opening on the 18th.
I feel like we all thought we were hopping on an old coal train and got on one of those extrememly fast asian trains. Things are moving forward so quickly; much more quickly than I think any of us expected. I am still very glad to be there but it does get a bit overwhelming at times.
In one week, we will have our official grand opening of both the Dream Center and the Health Center. I am so excited. I want everyone to get involved because I think what is happening in Woodlawn is amazing! Resources are pouring in. People in the neighborhood and the city are becoming more aware of what we are doing. We are growing our staff but we can’t do what we do without all of our volunteer help. So, I would love for you to join us.
Finally, I do have a quote of the week again :) Yesterday I saw a lady who present with left ear pain. When I asked her about it, she told me that she had had the pain for about 3-4 weeks. She then proceeded to tell me that “it was from that sonic boom we had.” Thus, I asked her about the “sonic boom.” She asked me if I heard the sonic boom. I told her that I had missed hearing it. She asked if I “lived around here” which I replied in the affirmative. Then she told me that the sonic boom was from “one of those storms that we had recently and then there was the sonic boom and it knocked the power out for 3 hours!” I realized at this point that she was talking about thunder!! I don’t know where these people come up with these things!
Much love and be sure to keep those ear plugs handy :)
