Lafayette Health Clinic Closes Doors: The Indiana Family Health Council Voted to Shut the Facility Down.
By Jennifer L. Boen, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Jun. 21–Fewer than five months after the Lafayette Street Family Health Clinic held its grand opening, the clinic’s funding was pulled and its doors shut.
The clinic, a partnership of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Parkview Hospital and Parkview Medical Group, offered free and reduced-cost family planning and women’s health services.
All but $1 of the clinic’s $224,000 annual budget came from federal funds through the Department of Heath and Human Services, which contracts with the Indiana Family Health Council, a private, nonprofit organization that receives and administers the money.
Gayla Winston, president of the council, said its board voted to terminate the contract with the clinic based on a recommendation from the council’s staff.
Winston declined to provide further detail because the clinic has filed an appeal, which the board will review in mid-July.
“Another vote will be taken,” she said. “Our job is to monitor the agencies we fund.”
Parkview Medical Group doctors oversaw the clinic, and Parkview Hospital provided laboratory services. Dr. Chris Stroud, Parkview’s chief medical officer, said he was told the council’s decision relates to questions it has about the practices of the clinic’s staff.
“I find that hard to believe,” he said. “I find it very unusual that (the nurse practitioners) would deviate at all from well-established standards of care.”
The staff provides similar services at IPFW’s on-campus clinic, which also is overseen by Parkview.
Stroud said he would be meeting this week with IPFW Chancellor Michael Wartell and others involved in the collaboration to assist with the appeal. If it is denied, Stroud said Parkview might consider helping IPFW find another source of funding, or even consider funding the clinic itself.
“It aligns with our mission,” he said.In January, Winston said the council was funding 55 Indiana family planning clinics, but Wednesday she said 45 clinics run by 13 agencies are currently funded. Stroud conjectured the drop in numbers could mean the council has over-extended itself financially.
The clinic, 2700 S. Lafayette St., officially opened in October and by January, 15 to 20 patients were being seen daily, said April Martinez, the clinic’s secretary-receptionist.
But no patients have been seen since May 10, Martinez said, which was a few days after receipt of a letter from the council stating it would no longer support the clinic.
On Wednesday, Martinez was packing up her things, the last employee to leave.
“This is my last day,” she said. “I can’t live like this. I need to be able to know I have a job.”
At the grand opening in January, Parkview Chief Medical Officer Dr. Chris Stroud said, “The clinic fits in with our mission.”
The clinic was the first off-campus clinic sponsored by IPFW. Staffed by a full-time nurse practitioner and two part-time IPFW nursing faculty members who are nurse practitioners, the clinic was to serve as a site for clinical education for nursing students, as well as for medical students at the Fort Wayne campus of the Indiana University School of Medicine, which is located at IPFW.
Linda Finke, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at IPFW, was out of the office on Wednesday, although her assistant said she would try to reach her.
The clinic offered a full range of birth control services, including oral contraceptives, the Depo-Provera hormone shot, emergency contraception and free condoms. Pap and pregnancy tests, HIV and other STD tests, as well as abstinence education and breast health education, also were available.
The clinic had applied to be a Medicaid provider, though its mission was never to turn someone away because of inability to pay. Martinez is fluent in Spanish, and clinic organizers said her ability to translate was something patients especially appreciated.
Patients are being referred to the Fort Wayne Planned Parenthood office, 3914 W. Jefferson Blvd., Winston said. Planned Parenthood will refill contraceptive prescriptions and give Depo-Provera shots to former Lafayette Street Family Health Clinic patients.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
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