September 28, 2024 • 30 mins
Lara Mautz is the executive director of the Christ Clinic and Jay Donnella in charge of their Strategic Partnerships. Christ Clinic delivers high quality healthcare to those who are uninsured and underinsured. Most of their services are delivered by volunteers, including the nurses and physicians who donate their time. This means they can help deliver healthcare to those who can’t pay. We also discuss how convenient it is for patients to use Christ Clinic before their symptoms turn into really big problems. To make appointments or to donate to their mission. Go to www.christclinickaty.org. You can also call for an appointment: 281-391-0190
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, an iHeartMedia
broadcast artists. Claimer says that the opinions express on this
show do not necessarily reflect those hell by this radio station,
its management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurent and I welcome Christ Clinic, one of the
(00:26):
organizations in town that is helping people with their healthcare
even if they cannot afford it. They even though they
call themselves a Christ Clinic, as you'll hear during our conversation,
they help everyone who comes to their door and ask
for help. Is a mark of their own passions and
religions and beliefs, but they extend their services to absolutely
everyone in the most Houstonian fashion that I've learned. Ever
(00:50):
since I came here in the early nineties, I've had
to make my peace with the differences in culture about
religion in this country. In France, which is a predominant
the Catholic country, we don't really talk about God much.
And when you move to the States, especially the South,
and people sometimes greet you with a religious blessing, or
they'll close out an email with bless you and let
(01:15):
me tell you. As a European it can seem a
little bit fanatical. And I know if that sounds kind
of rude, it's because our reaction is unfortunately ignorant and
just like, well, that's kind of she just said bless
me at the end of her greeting. It took me
a few years, I'm ashamed to say, to understand that
this was all very genuine. It's just a very polite
way of conversing and of living your faith and being
(01:35):
kind to everybody. And I've noticed that during the pandemic.
You might have noticed this, two folks. During the pandemic,
our government supported organizations, especially the ones that are run
by government affiliated people, they shut down. There were masks,
there were vaccine mandates, and their services fell through the roof.
(01:56):
On the side of the religiously supported organizations, the ones
that are run by volunteers out of churches, those services
were slowed down, but they kept their doors open in
rates that we did not see from the government organizations.
And that renewed my faith in humanity, believe it or not,
and it certainly rooting my faith for the importance of
(02:17):
being kind and teaching your children on how to be kind.
And a place like Christ Clinic and its traditions to
help everyone without a question and to make sure that
everybody can get access to good healthcare is a great
mark of what we are as a city. Houston is
rich in philanthropy and I love the city for it.
Lawa Moutz is the executive director of the Christ Clinic
(02:40):
and Jay Danilla is in charge of strategic partnerships for
Christ Clinic and Laura, I have to ask you, how
do you describe your organization. You're a clinic. You're a
full fledged medical facility. If I wanted to go get
myself checked out, I could do so, and actually you
would fairly charge me a little something because you have
a sliding scale, right. In other words, if I was
(03:03):
really if I'd fallen on hard times, you'd make sure
that I was getting the care I need. But because
I'm doing okay, I can come into your cleaning and
pay a fair price for the services. But what really
is the difference between your clinic and another.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sure, so we're a charitable clinic, which just means that
we survive through contributions in philanthropy. We do have some revenue,
as you mentioned, and I can explain that in a
second but we'll never let someone's inability to pay prevent
them from getting care, which is not different than many
other community health centers.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It's America. I've been here over thirty years. As I mentioned,
I've never heard of anyone being turned away from the
hospital unless they were rich and had insurance that had expired. Yeah,
but the people who can't pay get in.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Ways, that's true. There's these nasty rumors. So you can't
get healthcare in this country? Is are you kidding? You
drive yourself to an emergency room and they will see you.
You might have to wait a long time. Well, you
might always see you. Yeah, but if you can't pay,
they charge me the textpayer. So somebody's going to pay.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
For sure, somebody is going to pay.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But it's You're an example of one of those counter
arguments to something that is a nasty rumor, and that
is that healthcare is hard to attain in this country.
And that is not true at all. It never has
been as far as I know. And you're you're part
of the reason why.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, thank yeah, and we love we love being part
of the answer to that problem. I would say that
it can be harder for low income individuals or uninsured
individuals to access proactive healthcare. I think that's where the
big difference is, right, So there's emergent healthcare or urgent healthcare,
and then there's proactive healthcare when you're focused more on
(04:44):
managing a chronic disease process or staying staying healthy right,
or like preventing cancer getting screenings done.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Those are the kind of things.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That are difficult to access if you are a low
income and uninsured And so that's some of the services
that we really like to offer.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
At Christ Clinic.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And honestly, we've kind of developed the reputation as the
clinic that will say yes when everyone else says no.
So I would say that our specialty is really those
patients that are really medically complex and socially complex. It's
kind of the spot where we shine.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Socially complex, that's not a term I'm familiar with. What
do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So it could be things like, in addition to low
income and uninsured, maybe they struggle with transportation or housing
security or food insecurity. So there's a term called social
determinants of health, and it's used to describe all of
the things in your life that contribute to your condition,
(05:42):
your condition of health, like how you're physically healthy you
are that happen outside of the exam room. And they
say that about eighty percent of what makes a person
healthy or not healthy happens outside of the exam room
and twenty percent inside. So like your habits, the way
you eat, how much you exercise, those kinds of.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I was going to say, a lot of a lot
of our health is dependent on what we put on
our plate.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Absolutely, and we live.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
In interesting times when we're starting to actually talk about
it very seriously, and there's even talk against the sugar
industries and the mass packagers of bad foods, all those
lunchable things. Those are not very good for your US.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
You know, US population obesity percentages just going through the roof.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, and fast food and that's not just the drive
throughs and the you know, like the McDonald's or things
like that. It's the fast foods in the stores that
are made with sugars and artificial ingredients that just stick
to your body and kill you very slowly.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, it's interesting because you know, I I I was
born in America. I love this country very much, and
frankly I love capitalism.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
But there is a cost yep to it.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Right, So to ignore the cost of capitalism being convenience
and instant gratification, like all the things that are have
become a product of capitalism, is naive, right.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I think they're starting to catch up with it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, capitalism and democracy have one thing in common is
that they both depend upon a well informed and vigilant
populace to function. Well. Right, we're supposed we're supposed to
be active. We're supposed to know something about what's going on,
from our local representatives, who are among the most important
people who can do something for us, to what we
(07:33):
put in our bodies. And we have generations now, several
generations of people who when they can't they don't have
anything fresh in the fridge, they'll go to the store
and buy something that's prepackaged. There's some interesting things as
a quick tangent. I don't know if people know this,
but you don't pay sales tax when you buy produce.
(07:53):
If you buy an apple, you don't pay the eight
point twenty five sales tax. If the store peels that
apple for you, ops it up, you pay the sales tax.
So you can actually learn to make yourself a lot
of really healthy food for a whole lot less money.
And people don't realize if you could cut your food
budget in half, what would you do with that money. Well,
if you bought a crock pot, you'd be out forty
(08:15):
five dollars or thirty five dollars for that first month, right,
but eventually the cost will pay for itself. Cooking in
a crock pot is safe and easy, and you can
make the tortilla soups to roasts. Hey, if you can
make anything in a crock pop between tortilla soup and
a roast, which pretty much covers everything except foi gra okay,
(08:35):
And there might even be somebody who can do it
because that actually cooks real slow and low, so it
krock pot Flagah. Anyway, you're listening to Houston, PA, Houston's
Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent. My guests are
here from the Christ Clinic. Laura Mounts is the executive
director of the Christ Clinic and Jay Danilla is in
(08:58):
charge of strategic Partnership. I didn't mention they're online at
Christ Clinic Katie dot org all one word Christ Clinic
Katie dot org. Jay. If people need help, they go
to this website. What can they find? What's the process
by which I can get in from an appointment If
I'm let's say I've been unemployed for a year because
(09:18):
times are hard, I'm on my last time. We'll put
that situation. I just know that we have listeners that
are in their car right now, they're going to work
and they're living paycheck to paycheck and they need something
checked out.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
They can call our our phone number and schedule an appointment,
or we also try to rate maintain about half of.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Our daily schedule for walk in access.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
This is also a big advantage of being a charitable
clinic because we do try to make make sure that
we always have time to see people when they are
sick and not you know, calling your doctor and squeezing
you in in two weeks. So you know, it's the
best way is to call for an appointment, but we
also usually have access for immediate walk in as well, so.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
They can go to christ clinickdie dot org to get
the phone number. Can you set an appointment online too?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Sometimes? Yeah, yeah, most of the time we do have availability.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, those run out first. So what's the phone number?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Two eight one three nine one zero one nine zero.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Two eight one three nine to one zero one nine
zero two eight one three nine one zero one nine zero.
This is a good time to remind our audience that
if you didn't cash that phone number because you're driving
and you're being reasonable or some great excuse like that,
you can maybe remember my email address, which is very
easy and I'm happy to send you this information the
phone number of the website. My email address is Texan
(10:41):
from France at gmail dot com. If you can't remember that,
well then you're not a textan from France like I am.
I think it's kind of unforgettable.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
And we are the top search result on Google if
you look up Christ Clinic Houston.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah. Yeah, Ultimately, the website will get you in tooch
with the right people. So you were explaining to us,
if I come in and I tell you listen, I
just how do people announce to you that they can't pay?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
We ask, but they don't have to tell us. I
mean they can with no questions asked. It's a fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So when somebody first comes into us, our target population
is uninsured in low income, but there are a lot
of people that live in our area and still really
can't afford healthcare, especially like the preventative kind, like we
discussed earlier, and living in Katie can be kind of expensive,
you know, in the suburbs. So there are people that
are still making a decent living, but they don't have
(11:36):
health care and they still can't really afford to pay
a few hundred dollars to go to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So that's also our target population. So anybody that.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Comes to us for the first time, we assume that
they qualify as a charitable patient for us, and we
ask for a contribution for that visit.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
We ask for a contribution.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Of twenty dollars usually, and then there's labs labs can
you know, or for a panel of labs. It's usually
like a CBC CMP T s H freetfis just like.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Your blood work blood we're kind of out.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, Then those are usually about twenty five dollars is
what we'll ask for in a contribution. Again, if they
don't have it, we wave it. We see the patient
first and we collect at the end. And so when
they get to check out, if they say, you know,
I don't I'm sorry, I can't, you know, I don't
have anything for contribution, then it's not a problem. Anybody
can wave it. Even a volunteer that's working at the
(12:28):
desk could wave it without permission if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That must be a bit of an awkward moment though, right.
I think that one of the barriers to getting preventative
care is feeling ashamed at the fact that you can't pay,
and that's that's a psychological barrier. Absolutely, So we want
to say so just come in, absolutely, come in. There's
nobody here who's going to judge you. Get well, you'll
be fine. Actually you can help somebody else.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, we've actually seen some really beautiful moments that just
speak to the culture and comfortability. I think when you're
inside the walls of Christ Clinic. We've had people that
you know, we'll mention you know that they can't make
a contribution that day, and we've had other patients stand
up and ask to contribute towards their contribution.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, we have the best patient woplation. We're the sweetest.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Being forward at Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Well, the problem is that if you're paying forward for Starbucks.
We go back to the subject. We briefly touched the
which is or diet and now you're you're you're drinking
half a pack of sugar out of your flappucino.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
And if they were should have assumed they were going
to be paying for it anyways.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
But that's a whole different subject. Sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You can go to christ Clinic ktie dot org. Christ
Clinic ktie dot org and you can just make a donation.
You don't have to be a patient. You can just
help them help a bunch of people that that is
really paying it forward.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
It's it's a beautiful system.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I mean, like like Lara said, I mean we we
witness God's miracles almost daily. It just it's amazing. The
things I came from corporate health care, so I was
always fighting the system and the corporate mentality, and being
on this side of charity and seeing what God is
(14:13):
making happen is just it's almost undescribable.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Almost every day.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So aside from me going to the website and donating
a few bucks, where do you get your budget? Because
obviously providing medical care and for free sometimes it's extremely expensive.
You have professional doctors on staff, right.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
We do not. They are all volunteers.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Oh my gosh, Well, so they're all professional doctors, but
they're not being paid.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Actually, some of the best doctors in the Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Because we are a charity clinic. We offer a lot
of specialty care because our doctors do volunteer their time.
Most of them or private practice independent doctors. So they
like to volunteer because they're not being dictated by the
insurance companies or the hospital systems what they can and
can't do, so they get to practice health care. It's
(15:00):
an amazing combination.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
We do have twenty two full time staff, which are
you know, like nurse practitioners and the physician assistant lower level.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
But and you do pay these people.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, we pay the support staff to you, right, like
you have to have somebody answering the phone and medical assistance.
But we also take volunteers in all of those categories too.
We have a lot of volunteer nurses that help out
in our pharmacy and at various points throughout the clinic.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And how did you build your roster of volunteering doctors?
Do physicians just give you a call say hey, I'd
like to volunteer a day and afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Like it's mostly peer to peer honestly. So it usually
starts by we'll have a patient with a need and
let's say, let's we have a cardiologist now, but let's
say we didn't, right, we have a patient that desperately
needs cardiology, but we do have a volunteer pullmonologist, and
so this is how we part of the way that
we got a cardiologist.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
So we have a pullmonologist that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Has a network of yeah rdiologist friends. We had a
patient that needed help, and you know, it took him
about five minutes to copy and paste my patient story
text to all of his cardiologist friends and say would
somebody help? And then they usually start by saying yes,
they'll take one patient, and then we do it again
a couple weeks later, and then do it again a.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Couple of weeks later.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And then they see how grateful the patients are, that
they're not entitled at all. They're so thankful for anything
that you can do for them, and they enjoy their
experience working with Christ Clinic people because, well, we love Jesus,
but we're fun too, you know, we have good sense
of humor and we don't take ourselves too seriously.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And I think Jesus was fun.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think she was fun. I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Like to grill fish on the side of the lake,
you have a good time with this family.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, and the people work there, I mean, they're there
because they know what our mission is to help people,
and so everybody feels very blessed just being in Christ Clinic.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I have to say, I'm really impressed. So at first
the doctor is maybe a little timid because obviously, if
you know anything about nonprofits and helping people in charitable situations,
it can be ugly business. You are sometimes disappointed. Sometimes
some people don't even deserve to help you give them.
And that's besides the point, because when you are successful,
even if it's not very often, it fills your heart
(17:18):
with so much reward, hope, and just it's fine. But
in generally speaking, if you're in healthcare, you're helping people
all day long, so you must you must have a
heart full. But so I'm imagining the situation where their doctors, yeah, sure,
send them in, and then the client goes in somehow,
maybe you help them with a bus pass to get
and then they're like, well it would be more convenient
if I just spent an afternoon at the Christ Clinic.
(17:40):
Is that sort of how it works out?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We even have some providers that will shut down their
practice for a day and bring their team to help
support them.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now they've got accomplices. So it's obviously something that people
are enjoying. And once they're on the roster, they tend
to stay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Right, they do tend to stay.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah. It's my experience with organizations like this that the
people who get help are often future volunteers, and they
come back and it's like, well, I'd like to give
a hand. Can I have volunteer or something? So y'all
need volunteers, but you also need donations. We mentioned that.
I like to state that this is something I read
years ago, but the average woman in Houston in America,
(18:27):
carries around five dollars worth of money in loose change
jingling at the bottom of their purse.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I would agree that's average.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Happened, that's average, So you know, some women will have less,
but some women have fifty bucks just jingle jangling. And
my conclusion from that, it's like, Man, if we could
get the women of Houston to just turn over their
purse and dump it on the floor or the desk better,
you don't have to bend over now, just get it
on the desk and you count all those pennies and
you donate them. We could easily raise four five million
(18:58):
dollars and just the time it takes for every woman
in town to turn over the purse. But in that
kind of funny.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
You know, it's well, it's funny and it's also kind
of sad. You know, there's there's over sixty thousand nonprofits
in the Houston metro area and they're all kind of
fighting for money. And you know, if to your point,
if we could all hold hands and actually work together,
so much more could be accomplished. And you know, it's
(19:25):
that's why I love my position, because I'm dealing with
a lot of corporations that are looking to support us,
and you know, it's we're we're dealing with some of
the medical schools in town.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Nice.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
It's it's amazing. And the need is growing, which is
a blessing and a curse. I mean, I love what
we're doing, but it's unfortunate the need is growing so much.
We have a membership plan that they can like a
gym membership for the clinic. It's only forty dollars a
person that participates a month, and that person can then
come to the clinic for only five dollars. Increases productivity
(19:58):
because the person's not going to be on they're not
withholding necessary care until their ear is going to explode
or they can't breathe anymore. We have a full class
a retail pharmacy on premises, so we really give them,
you know, prescriptions that are necessary. It's total turnkey and
in our typical cycle time is right at about an hour.
So for the hourly population, you know, we're saving them
(20:22):
money because they're not off work for a day and
have to come back for labs and things like that.
So we are addressing a lot of the economic issues
in the area as well.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So you have the nurse practitioners doing some of these
consultations too, right.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Oh, absolutely, they can prescribe, they can't have physicians assistants both.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, So that's powerful because it liberates a physician, a
doctor of any kind, to take on the more serious cases,
while a nurse practitioner can take care of a sinus
infection which is so easily diagnosed, and once you say,
oh you've got green snow in your nose, here, here's
your script. You can be done in half an hour.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
For five dollars under membership plan. That's instead of going
to a two hundred dollars. Primary characteric that are popping
up like Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I'll tell you, usually right next to the Starbucks, have
your frappuccino pass out and here's your help.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, I'll tell you that our nurse practitioners and physician
assistance that we have, they're used to seeing a patient
population that's pretty complex and acute patient or a patient
that is not that sick, is still sick enough that
many physicians' offices would go ahead and send them to
the emergency room. And for our patients that are really sick.
If we send a patient to the hospital, most of
(21:39):
the time they're in the ICU. So our our nurse
practitioners see do they treat pretty complex disease processes.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And in many different languages.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Almost our entire population is bilingual.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, So what about your practitioners, your volunteers, most of
them are bilingual. Yeah, and most houstonias are going to
have to be linguist sometimes well, and.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Pretty much all of our staff speak Spanish, Jay, and
I don't. I mean, I think we probably understand a
good amount. I used to be pretty Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I'm like that too. It's like, oh, please speak slowly
and I will be able to understand you. But I
do that every country I go to in Spanish, just kidding,
in Spanish or Italiano.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I just I love languages. I just I think that
that's what I was I was going to be a doctor,
so I took German. Plus I'm mostly German historically, so
I have half speak German.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
If anybody shows up speaking German and at the clinic.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Yeah, liben and we and we do have a translator,
uh service that you know, we can actually translate almost
every language.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
There thirty languages you dial up on the computer, right, No, well.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's actually like yeah, kind of it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Walks in.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Well, it is a real it's it's a real person.
So you get a person that will do the interpretation
for you, which is important because so my just said
in body language, yes, and then and then the patient
gets to speak knowing that there's somebody, you know, virtually
in the room that understands.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So it is a video conference call, but it's on
a mobile computer or something. That's kind of cool. That's
really cool. Uh, what do people come in for? Like
if you, if I if I asked you, what's the
average client that comes in for the first time not
knowing what to expect from the Christ Clinic. What what
ails them, what compels them to come.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Most frequently, it's a chronic disease process that has gotten
way out of hand. So we'll see a lot of
diabetic or our heart failure patients. Diabetes is definitely one
of our top diagnoses.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And just diet related.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It is diet related, yeah, and and if it's been
uncontrolled for a long time, you end up with all
kinds of other problems. So we do a lot of
really complex wound care, like patients that are on wound.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Vacks the hospitals.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And it's it's like a machine that applies negative pressure
to a wound.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So if they have bed sores or things like.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That, Yeah, but really bad.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
But because their circulation is not working, their wound won't close.
So we can and they usually won't get it cleaned
and redressed like they're supposed to, so half the time
they end up in reinfection or sometimes even amputation.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, just it's not that they won't, it's that if
there's not a place like Christ Clinic, they can't because
you can't know, you can't just like a lay person
can't change out a wound.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Back.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
You need somebody that specializes in wound care to do that.
So before when they would put people on a wound back,
which is necessary for a wound of that size, you know,
they would have to wait until it was falling off
to come back into the emergency room. Because you can't
just schedule an appointment every couple days to have your
wound back changed in the emergency room, that's not an emergency.
(24:49):
So they would have to wait until it quit functioning
and then became infected again, so it would be an emergency.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And then you're leading, you're pretty.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So you're never getting well.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
No, you're I mean you're gonna have any portation.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You get a little better, and then it gets bad again.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
It probably never gets better. You're probably going to get amputation.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So most of these wounds cost people that are insured
one hundred thousand dollars a year. Like these are complex,
non healing wounds that mostly lead to amputations, and most
people have them for the rest of their lives. But
what's what is amazing about our patient population. Our providers
that volunteer with us are always shocked at how compliant
(25:25):
our patients are, how they will take their medication, take
their insulin change their diet. And so it's interesting because
a lot of our patients have never had access to
primary care never, so they don't take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
When they get access to a doctor, and the doctor.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
In access to the insulin, like so they can actually
afford it, right, somebody hands it to them, and so
they take the insulin because you know, they don't have
a mindset of like, oh well, I'll deal with this later,
like they've done without it for years their whole life,
and so when they get it, they really appreciate it
and they take it. So their blood sugar gets under
control pretty quickly improves, and then their wound actually starts
(26:02):
to improve. So we have healed closed many chronic non
healing wounds, which just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Is this seriously just a matter of First of all,
you've got to treat the wound itself, but then it's
a matter of applying insulin. Yes, there are other compounds
right there, Well, there are the big one.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Most of these patients.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
If you have a chronic non healing wound, you probably
need insulin because your blood really so long.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
But one of the reasons the wound develops is because
they're not taking their insulin regularly, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, Or they didn't have insolent to begin with, they
never had their diabetes, they didn't even know they were diabetic.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, we actually win awards because the quality of our
care for chronic condition management is so good. I mean
it's better in many cases than a lot of national
health care providers for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol management,
things like that, because our doctors spend time with the patients.
They actually talk talk about cultural issues, things that are
(27:03):
impacting their health in addition to just.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Compliance with their drugs or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
So they sit down on the little stool and listen
to the questions that the patient may have.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
There.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
It's an old concept. Really well.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Chose.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I've chosen all my physicians, like my primary care physician.
I had to go to two or three before I
found one when I first moved to Houston, and I
wanted somebody who would sit down. And finally the guy
is not only sitting down and listening to my questions,
but before he gets up, he said, do you have
any other questions? And so I found the guy I need.
This is the kind of you know, I want. You
(27:38):
want somebody who'll take care of you. And one thing
that I want to mention before we go a place
like Christ Clinic. Some people have the wrong idea that
sometimes these are conveyor belt factories. You come in, you
get impersonal uh service, You pay for what you get.
If it's free, then you're the product online. If it's free,
(27:58):
it's not very good product.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
This is not true here, and I guess you do
probably deal with that stigma. There's going to be an apprehension.
But the fact is, if the Christ Clinic is close
to you and you have you can afford to see
you know someone in a private practice, you could still
go and pay a fair price and get yourself checked
out by Christ Clinic, although you might be taking up
some time that they can give to someone who is
(28:22):
more needy. So maybe those of us who have a responsibility,
do we have a responsibility go see you know a
private care practitioner to liberate the time that you may
have with someone who needs it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I mean I I first of all, if somebody has
time and they're interested in Christ Clinic, either Jay or
I would love to give you a tour, whether you
become a patient or not. And if at some point
you want to, you know, be a secret shopper and
test out the services yourself before you decide, then you
can do that too.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I had that.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
I gave a guy a tour and he called me
up three days later and he said, hey, I didn't
want to give you give your heads up because I
didn't want to be treated differently. But he did come
in the day before and he said that was the
best healthcare experience he's ever had.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
And he is a highly educated, white.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Collar you know, who can afford to go see any
specialists when he has diabetes, and he's he's like, you know,
every time I call my doctor, they can't see me
for two or three weeks, and it's gonna cost me
five hundred dollars. You know, it's like to come to
the clinic and get it taken care of. So, you know,
I I really think that it comes around. What comes
around goes around. You know the fact that it is
(29:26):
very inexpensive. Those people that do use the service, I
think are starting to donate more back to the clinic
to support because they know that we're providing a very
high quality service for a very needy demographic.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, So if you're sitting in your car and you're
thinking to yourself, man, this sounds like the place I
could go to to take care of this problem that
I've been carrying for a few weeks, and you've been busy.
You can't afford it because you're your paycheck to paycheck.
Go to christ Clinic. Their website is christ clinickdie dot org,
christ clinic ca org. You can make an appointment and
(30:03):
get in. You can also call two eight one three
nine one zero one nine zero three nine to one
zero one nine zero to make an appointment, and you
can send me an email if all of this information
went by too fast and you're driving and you're busy,
and I will gladly send you this information and email.
My email address is Texan from France at gmail dot com.
(30:26):
Texan from France at gmail dot com. I want to
thank you for listening and caring about the issues that
put on this show. Folks. My name is Laurence. I
am the Texan from France and this has been Houston, PA,
Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public affairs show, an iHeartMedia
broadcast artists. Claimer says that the opinions express on this
show do not necessarily reflect those hell by this radio station,
its management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurent and I welcome Christ Clinic, one of the
(00:26):
organizations in town that is helping people with their healthcare
even if they cannot afford it. They even though they
call themselves a Christ Clinic, as you'll hear during our conversation,
they help everyone who comes to their door and ask
for help. Is a mark of their own passions and
religions and beliefs, but they extend their services to absolutely
everyone in the most Houstonian fashion that I've learned. Ever
(00:50):
since I came here in the early nineties, I've had
to make my peace with the differences in culture about
religion in this country. In France, which is a predominant
the Catholic country, we don't really talk about God much.
And when you move to the States, especially the South,
and people sometimes greet you with a religious blessing, or
they'll close out an email with bless you and let
(01:15):
me tell you. As a European it can seem a
little bit fanatical. And I know if that sounds kind
of rude, it's because our reaction is unfortunately ignorant and
just like, well, that's kind of she just said bless
me at the end of her greeting. It took me
a few years, I'm ashamed to say, to understand that
this was all very genuine. It's just a very polite
way of conversing and of living your faith and being
(01:35):
kind to everybody. And I've noticed that during the pandemic.
You might have noticed this, two folks. During the pandemic,
our government supported organizations, especially the ones that are run
by government affiliated people, they shut down. There were masks,
there were vaccine mandates, and their services fell through the roof.
(01:56):
On the side of the religiously supported organizations, the ones
that are run by volunteers out of churches, those services
were slowed down, but they kept their doors open in
rates that we did not see from the government organizations.
And that renewed my faith in humanity, believe it or not,
and it certainly rooting my faith for the importance of
(02:17):
being kind and teaching your children on how to be kind.
And a place like Christ Clinic and its traditions to
help everyone without a question and to make sure that
everybody can get access to good healthcare is a great
mark of what we are as a city. Houston is
rich in philanthropy and I love the city for it.
Lawa Moutz is the executive director of the Christ Clinic
(02:40):
and Jay Danilla is in charge of strategic partnerships for
Christ Clinic and Laura, I have to ask you, how
do you describe your organization. You're a clinic. You're a
full fledged medical facility. If I wanted to go get
myself checked out, I could do so, and actually you
would fairly charge me a little something because you have
a sliding scale, right. In other words, if I was
(03:03):
really if I'd fallen on hard times, you'd make sure
that I was getting the care I need. But because
I'm doing okay, I can come into your cleaning and
pay a fair price for the services. But what really
is the difference between your clinic and another.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sure, so we're a charitable clinic, which just means that
we survive through contributions in philanthropy. We do have some revenue,
as you mentioned, and I can explain that in a
second but we'll never let someone's inability to pay prevent
them from getting care, which is not different than many
other community health centers.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
It's America. I've been here over thirty years. As I mentioned,
I've never heard of anyone being turned away from the
hospital unless they were rich and had insurance that had expired. Yeah,
but the people who can't pay get in.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Ways, that's true. There's these nasty rumors. So you can't
get healthcare in this country? Is are you kidding? You
drive yourself to an emergency room and they will see you.
You might have to wait a long time. Well, you
might always see you. Yeah, but if you can't pay,
they charge me the textpayer. So somebody's going to pay.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
For sure, somebody is going to pay.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But it's You're an example of one of those counter
arguments to something that is a nasty rumor, and that
is that healthcare is hard to attain in this country.
And that is not true at all. It never has
been as far as I know. And you're you're part
of the reason why.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, thank yeah, and we love we love being part
of the answer to that problem. I would say that
it can be harder for low income individuals or uninsured
individuals to access proactive healthcare. I think that's where the
big difference is, right, So there's emergent healthcare or urgent healthcare,
and then there's proactive healthcare when you're focused more on
(04:44):
managing a chronic disease process or staying staying healthy right,
or like preventing cancer getting screenings done.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Those are the kind of things.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That are difficult to access if you are a low
income and uninsured And so that's some of the services
that we really like to offer.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
At Christ Clinic.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And honestly, we've kind of developed the reputation as the
clinic that will say yes when everyone else says no.
So I would say that our specialty is really those
patients that are really medically complex and socially complex. It's
kind of the spot where we shine.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Socially complex, that's not a term I'm familiar with. What
do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So it could be things like, in addition to low
income and uninsured, maybe they struggle with transportation or housing
security or food insecurity. So there's a term called social
determinants of health, and it's used to describe all of
the things in your life that contribute to your condition,
(05:42):
your condition of health, like how you're physically healthy you
are that happen outside of the exam room. And they
say that about eighty percent of what makes a person
healthy or not healthy happens outside of the exam room
and twenty percent inside. So like your habits, the way
you eat, how much you exercise, those kinds of.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I was going to say, a lot of a lot
of our health is dependent on what we put on
our plate.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Absolutely, and we live.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
In interesting times when we're starting to actually talk about
it very seriously, and there's even talk against the sugar
industries and the mass packagers of bad foods, all those
lunchable things. Those are not very good for your US.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
You know, US population obesity percentages just going through the roof.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, and fast food and that's not just the drive
throughs and the you know, like the McDonald's or things
like that. It's the fast foods in the stores that
are made with sugars and artificial ingredients that just stick
to your body and kill you very slowly.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, it's interesting because you know, I I I was
born in America. I love this country very much, and
frankly I love capitalism.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
But there is a cost yep to it.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Right, So to ignore the cost of capitalism being convenience
and instant gratification, like all the things that are have
become a product of capitalism, is naive, right.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I think they're starting to catch up with it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, capitalism and democracy have one thing in common is
that they both depend upon a well informed and vigilant
populace to function. Well. Right, we're supposed we're supposed to
be active. We're supposed to know something about what's going on,
from our local representatives, who are among the most important
people who can do something for us, to what we
(07:33):
put in our bodies. And we have generations now, several
generations of people who when they can't they don't have
anything fresh in the fridge, they'll go to the store
and buy something that's prepackaged. There's some interesting things as
a quick tangent. I don't know if people know this,
but you don't pay sales tax when you buy produce.
(07:53):
If you buy an apple, you don't pay the eight
point twenty five sales tax. If the store peels that
apple for you, ops it up, you pay the sales tax.
So you can actually learn to make yourself a lot
of really healthy food for a whole lot less money.
And people don't realize if you could cut your food
budget in half, what would you do with that money. Well,
if you bought a crock pot, you'd be out forty
(08:15):
five dollars or thirty five dollars for that first month, right,
but eventually the cost will pay for itself. Cooking in
a crock pot is safe and easy, and you can
make the tortilla soups to roasts. Hey, if you can
make anything in a crock pop between tortilla soup and
a roast, which pretty much covers everything except foi gra okay,
(08:35):
And there might even be somebody who can do it
because that actually cooks real slow and low, so it
krock pot Flagah. Anyway, you're listening to Houston, PA, Houston's
Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent. My guests are
here from the Christ Clinic. Laura Mounts is the executive
director of the Christ Clinic and Jay Danilla is in
(08:58):
charge of strategic Partnership. I didn't mention they're online at
Christ Clinic Katie dot org all one word Christ Clinic
Katie dot org. Jay. If people need help, they go
to this website. What can they find? What's the process
by which I can get in from an appointment If
I'm let's say I've been unemployed for a year because
(09:18):
times are hard, I'm on my last time. We'll put
that situation. I just know that we have listeners that
are in their car right now, they're going to work
and they're living paycheck to paycheck and they need something
checked out.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
They can call our our phone number and schedule an appointment,
or we also try to rate maintain about half of.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Our daily schedule for walk in access.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
This is also a big advantage of being a charitable
clinic because we do try to make make sure that
we always have time to see people when they are
sick and not you know, calling your doctor and squeezing
you in in two weeks. So you know, it's the
best way is to call for an appointment, but we
also usually have access for immediate walk in as well, so.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
They can go to christ clinickdie dot org to get
the phone number. Can you set an appointment online too?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Sometimes? Yeah, yeah, most of the time we do have availability.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, those run out first. So what's the phone number?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Two eight one three nine one zero one nine zero.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Two eight one three nine to one zero one nine
zero two eight one three nine one zero one nine zero.
This is a good time to remind our audience that
if you didn't cash that phone number because you're driving
and you're being reasonable or some great excuse like that,
you can maybe remember my email address, which is very
easy and I'm happy to send you this information the
phone number of the website. My email address is Texan
(10:41):
from France at gmail dot com. If you can't remember that,
well then you're not a textan from France like I am.
I think it's kind of unforgettable.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
And we are the top search result on Google if
you look up Christ Clinic Houston.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah. Yeah, Ultimately, the website will get you in tooch
with the right people. So you were explaining to us,
if I come in and I tell you listen, I
just how do people announce to you that they can't pay?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
We ask, but they don't have to tell us. I
mean they can with no questions asked. It's a fifty dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So when somebody first comes into us, our target population
is uninsured in low income, but there are a lot
of people that live in our area and still really
can't afford healthcare, especially like the preventative kind, like we
discussed earlier, and living in Katie can be kind of expensive,
you know, in the suburbs. So there are people that
are still making a decent living, but they don't have
(11:36):
health care and they still can't really afford to pay
a few hundred dollars to go to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So that's also our target population. So anybody that.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Comes to us for the first time, we assume that
they qualify as a charitable patient for us, and we
ask for a contribution for that visit.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
We ask for a contribution.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Of twenty dollars usually, and then there's labs labs can
you know, or for a panel of labs. It's usually
like a CBC CMP T s H freetfis just like.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Your blood work blood we're kind of out.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, Then those are usually about twenty five dollars is
what we'll ask for in a contribution. Again, if they
don't have it, we wave it. We see the patient
first and we collect at the end. And so when
they get to check out, if they say, you know,
I don't I'm sorry, I can't, you know, I don't
have anything for contribution, then it's not a problem. Anybody
can wave it. Even a volunteer that's working at the
(12:28):
desk could wave it without permission if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That must be a bit of an awkward moment though, right.
I think that one of the barriers to getting preventative
care is feeling ashamed at the fact that you can't pay,
and that's that's a psychological barrier. Absolutely, So we want
to say so just come in, absolutely, come in. There's
nobody here who's going to judge you. Get well, you'll
be fine. Actually you can help somebody else.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, we've actually seen some really beautiful moments that just
speak to the culture and comfortability. I think when you're
inside the walls of Christ Clinic. We've had people that
you know, we'll mention you know that they can't make
a contribution that day, and we've had other patients stand
up and ask to contribute towards their contribution.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, we have the best patient woplation. We're the sweetest.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Being forward at Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Well, the problem is that if you're paying forward for Starbucks.
We go back to the subject. We briefly touched the
which is or diet and now you're you're you're drinking
half a pack of sugar out of your flappucino.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
And if they were should have assumed they were going
to be paying for it anyways.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
But that's a whole different subject. Sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You can go to christ Clinic ktie dot org. Christ
Clinic ktie dot org and you can just make a donation.
You don't have to be a patient. You can just
help them help a bunch of people that that is
really paying it forward.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
It's it's a beautiful system.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I mean, like like Lara said, I mean we we
witness God's miracles almost daily. It just it's amazing. The
things I came from corporate health care, so I was
always fighting the system and the corporate mentality, and being
on this side of charity and seeing what God is
(14:13):
making happen is just it's almost undescribable.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Almost every day.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
So aside from me going to the website and donating
a few bucks, where do you get your budget? Because
obviously providing medical care and for free sometimes it's extremely expensive.
You have professional doctors on staff, right.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
We do not. They are all volunteers.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Oh my gosh, Well, so they're all professional doctors, but
they're not being paid.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Actually, some of the best doctors in the Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Because we are a charity clinic. We offer a lot
of specialty care because our doctors do volunteer their time.
Most of them or private practice independent doctors. So they
like to volunteer because they're not being dictated by the
insurance companies or the hospital systems what they can and
can't do, so they get to practice health care. It's
(15:00):
an amazing combination.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
We do have twenty two full time staff, which are
you know, like nurse practitioners and the physician assistant lower level.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
But and you do pay these people.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, we pay the support staff to you, right, like
you have to have somebody answering the phone and medical assistance.
But we also take volunteers in all of those categories too.
We have a lot of volunteer nurses that help out
in our pharmacy and at various points throughout the clinic.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And how did you build your roster of volunteering doctors?
Do physicians just give you a call say hey, I'd
like to volunteer a day and afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Like it's mostly peer to peer honestly. So it usually
starts by we'll have a patient with a need and
let's say, let's we have a cardiologist now, but let's
say we didn't, right, we have a patient that desperately
needs cardiology, but we do have a volunteer pullmonologist, and
so this is how we part of the way that
we got a cardiologist.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
So we have a pullmonologist that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Has a network of yeah rdiologist friends. We had a
patient that needed help, and you know, it took him
about five minutes to copy and paste my patient story
text to all of his cardiologist friends and say would
somebody help? And then they usually start by saying yes,
they'll take one patient, and then we do it again
a couple weeks later, and then do it again a.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Couple of weeks later.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And then they see how grateful the patients are, that
they're not entitled at all. They're so thankful for anything
that you can do for them, and they enjoy their
experience working with Christ Clinic people because, well, we love Jesus,
but we're fun too, you know, we have good sense
of humor and we don't take ourselves too seriously.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And I think Jesus was fun.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think she was fun. I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Like to grill fish on the side of the lake,
you have a good time with this family.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, and the people work there, I mean, they're there
because they know what our mission is to help people,
and so everybody feels very blessed just being in Christ Clinic.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I have to say, I'm really impressed. So at first
the doctor is maybe a little timid because obviously, if
you know anything about nonprofits and helping people in charitable situations,
it can be ugly business. You are sometimes disappointed. Sometimes
some people don't even deserve to help you give them.
And that's besides the point, because when you are successful,
even if it's not very often, it fills your heart
(17:18):
with so much reward, hope, and just it's fine. But
in generally speaking, if you're in healthcare, you're helping people
all day long, so you must you must have a
heart full. But so I'm imagining the situation where their doctors, yeah, sure,
send them in, and then the client goes in somehow,
maybe you help them with a bus pass to get
and then they're like, well it would be more convenient
if I just spent an afternoon at the Christ Clinic.
(17:40):
Is that sort of how it works out?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We even have some providers that will shut down their
practice for a day and bring their team to help
support them.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now they've got accomplices. So it's obviously something that people
are enjoying. And once they're on the roster, they tend
to stay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Right, they do tend to stay.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah. It's my experience with organizations like this that the
people who get help are often future volunteers, and they
come back and it's like, well, I'd like to give
a hand. Can I have volunteer or something? So y'all
need volunteers, but you also need donations. We mentioned that.
I like to state that this is something I read
years ago, but the average woman in Houston in America,
(18:27):
carries around five dollars worth of money in loose change
jingling at the bottom of their purse.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I would agree that's average.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Happened, that's average, So you know, some women will have less,
but some women have fifty bucks just jingle jangling. And
my conclusion from that, it's like, Man, if we could
get the women of Houston to just turn over their
purse and dump it on the floor or the desk better,
you don't have to bend over now, just get it
on the desk and you count all those pennies and
you donate them. We could easily raise four five million
(18:58):
dollars and just the time it takes for every woman
in town to turn over the purse. But in that
kind of funny.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
You know, it's well, it's funny and it's also kind
of sad. You know, there's there's over sixty thousand nonprofits
in the Houston metro area and they're all kind of
fighting for money. And you know, if to your point,
if we could all hold hands and actually work together,
so much more could be accomplished. And you know, it's
(19:25):
that's why I love my position, because I'm dealing with
a lot of corporations that are looking to support us,
and you know, it's we're we're dealing with some of
the medical schools in town.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Nice.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
It's it's amazing. And the need is growing, which is
a blessing and a curse. I mean, I love what
we're doing, but it's unfortunate the need is growing so much.
We have a membership plan that they can like a
gym membership for the clinic. It's only forty dollars a
person that participates a month, and that person can then
come to the clinic for only five dollars. Increases productivity
(19:58):
because the person's not going to be on they're not
withholding necessary care until their ear is going to explode
or they can't breathe anymore. We have a full class
a retail pharmacy on premises, so we really give them,
you know, prescriptions that are necessary. It's total turnkey and
in our typical cycle time is right at about an hour.
So for the hourly population, you know, we're saving them
(20:22):
money because they're not off work for a day and
have to come back for labs and things like that.
So we are addressing a lot of the economic issues
in the area as well.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So you have the nurse practitioners doing some of these
consultations too, right.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Oh, absolutely, they can prescribe, they can't have physicians assistants both.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, So that's powerful because it liberates a physician, a
doctor of any kind, to take on the more serious cases,
while a nurse practitioner can take care of a sinus
infection which is so easily diagnosed, and once you say,
oh you've got green snow in your nose, here, here's
your script. You can be done in half an hour.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
For five dollars under membership plan. That's instead of going
to a two hundred dollars. Primary characteric that are popping
up like Starbucks.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I'll tell you, usually right next to the Starbucks, have
your frappuccino pass out and here's your help.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, I'll tell you that our nurse practitioners and physician
assistance that we have, they're used to seeing a patient
population that's pretty complex and acute patient or a patient
that is not that sick, is still sick enough that
many physicians' offices would go ahead and send them to
the emergency room. And for our patients that are really sick.
If we send a patient to the hospital, most of
(21:39):
the time they're in the ICU. So our our nurse
practitioners see do they treat pretty complex disease processes.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And in many different languages.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Almost our entire population is bilingual.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, So what about your practitioners, your volunteers, most of
them are bilingual. Yeah, and most houstonias are going to
have to be linguist sometimes well, and.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Pretty much all of our staff speak Spanish, Jay, and
I don't. I mean, I think we probably understand a
good amount. I used to be pretty Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I'm like that too. It's like, oh, please speak slowly
and I will be able to understand you. But I
do that every country I go to in Spanish, just kidding,
in Spanish or Italiano.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I just I love languages. I just I think that
that's what I was I was going to be a doctor,
so I took German. Plus I'm mostly German historically, so
I have half speak German.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
If anybody shows up speaking German and at the clinic.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Yeah, liben and we and we do have a translator,
uh service that you know, we can actually translate almost
every language.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
There thirty languages you dial up on the computer, right, No, well.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's actually like yeah, kind of it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Walks in.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Well, it is a real it's it's a real person.
So you get a person that will do the interpretation
for you, which is important because so my just said
in body language, yes, and then and then the patient
gets to speak knowing that there's somebody, you know, virtually
in the room that understands.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So it is a video conference call, but it's on
a mobile computer or something. That's kind of cool. That's
really cool. Uh, what do people come in for? Like
if you, if I if I asked you, what's the
average client that comes in for the first time not
knowing what to expect from the Christ Clinic. What what
ails them, what compels them to come.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Most frequently, it's a chronic disease process that has gotten
way out of hand. So we'll see a lot of
diabetic or our heart failure patients. Diabetes is definitely one
of our top diagnoses.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And just diet related.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It is diet related, yeah, and and if it's been
uncontrolled for a long time, you end up with all
kinds of other problems. So we do a lot of
really complex wound care, like patients that are on wound.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Vacks the hospitals.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And it's it's like a machine that applies negative pressure
to a wound.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So if they have bed sores or things like.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That, Yeah, but really bad.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
But because their circulation is not working, their wound won't close.
So we can and they usually won't get it cleaned
and redressed like they're supposed to, so half the time
they end up in reinfection or sometimes even amputation.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, just it's not that they won't, it's that if
there's not a place like Christ Clinic, they can't because
you can't know, you can't just like a lay person
can't change out a wound.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Back.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
You need somebody that specializes in wound care to do that.
So before when they would put people on a wound back,
which is necessary for a wound of that size, you know,
they would have to wait until it was falling off
to come back into the emergency room. Because you can't
just schedule an appointment every couple days to have your
wound back changed in the emergency room, that's not an emergency.
(24:49):
So they would have to wait until it quit functioning
and then became infected again, so it would be an emergency.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
And then you're leading, you're pretty.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So you're never getting well.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
No, you're I mean you're gonna have any portation.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You get a little better, and then it gets bad again.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
It probably never gets better. You're probably going to get amputation.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So most of these wounds cost people that are insured
one hundred thousand dollars a year. Like these are complex,
non healing wounds that mostly lead to amputations, and most
people have them for the rest of their lives. But
what's what is amazing about our patient population. Our providers
that volunteer with us are always shocked at how compliant
(25:25):
our patients are, how they will take their medication, take
their insulin change their diet. And so it's interesting because
a lot of our patients have never had access to
primary care never, so they don't take it for granted.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
When they get access to a doctor, and the doctor.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
In access to the insulin, like so they can actually
afford it, right, somebody hands it to them, and so
they take the insulin because you know, they don't have
a mindset of like, oh well, I'll deal with this later,
like they've done without it for years their whole life,
and so when they get it, they really appreciate it
and they take it. So their blood sugar gets under
control pretty quickly improves, and then their wound actually starts
(26:02):
to improve. So we have healed closed many chronic non
healing wounds, which just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Is this seriously just a matter of First of all,
you've got to treat the wound itself, but then it's
a matter of applying insulin. Yes, there are other compounds
right there, Well, there are the big one.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Most of these patients.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
If you have a chronic non healing wound, you probably
need insulin because your blood really so long.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
But one of the reasons the wound develops is because
they're not taking their insulin regularly, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, Or they didn't have insolent to begin with, they
never had their diabetes, they didn't even know they were diabetic.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah, we actually win awards because the quality of our
care for chronic condition management is so good. I mean
it's better in many cases than a lot of national
health care providers for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol management,
things like that, because our doctors spend time with the patients.
They actually talk talk about cultural issues, things that are
(27:03):
impacting their health in addition to just.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Compliance with their drugs or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
So they sit down on the little stool and listen
to the questions that the patient may have.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
There.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
It's an old concept. Really well.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Chose.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I've chosen all my physicians, like my primary care physician.
I had to go to two or three before I
found one when I first moved to Houston, and I
wanted somebody who would sit down. And finally the guy
is not only sitting down and listening to my questions,
but before he gets up, he said, do you have
any other questions? And so I found the guy I need.
This is the kind of you know, I want. You
(27:38):
want somebody who'll take care of you. And one thing
that I want to mention before we go a place
like Christ Clinic. Some people have the wrong idea that
sometimes these are conveyor belt factories. You come in, you
get impersonal uh service, You pay for what you get.
If it's free, then you're the product online. If it's free,
(27:58):
it's not very good product.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
This is not true here, and I guess you do
probably deal with that stigma. There's going to be an apprehension.
But the fact is, if the Christ Clinic is close
to you and you have you can afford to see
you know someone in a private practice, you could still
go and pay a fair price and get yourself checked
out by Christ Clinic, although you might be taking up
some time that they can give to someone who is
(28:22):
more needy. So maybe those of us who have a responsibility,
do we have a responsibility go see you know a
private care practitioner to liberate the time that you may
have with someone who needs it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I mean I I first of all, if somebody has
time and they're interested in Christ Clinic, either Jay or
I would love to give you a tour, whether you
become a patient or not. And if at some point
you want to, you know, be a secret shopper and
test out the services yourself before you decide, then you
can do that too.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I had that.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
I gave a guy a tour and he called me
up three days later and he said, hey, I didn't
want to give you give your heads up because I
didn't want to be treated differently. But he did come
in the day before and he said that was the
best healthcare experience he's ever had.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
And he is a highly educated, white.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Collar you know, who can afford to go see any
specialists when he has diabetes, and he's he's like, you know,
every time I call my doctor, they can't see me
for two or three weeks, and it's gonna cost me
five hundred dollars. You know, it's like to come to
the clinic and get it taken care of. So, you know,
I I really think that it comes around. What comes
around goes around. You know the fact that it is
(29:26):
very inexpensive. Those people that do use the service, I
think are starting to donate more back to the clinic
to support because they know that we're providing a very
high quality service for a very needy demographic.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, So if you're sitting in your car and you're
thinking to yourself, man, this sounds like the place I
could go to to take care of this problem that
I've been carrying for a few weeks, and you've been busy.
You can't afford it because you're your paycheck to paycheck.
Go to christ Clinic. Their website is christ clinickdie dot org,
christ clinic ca org. You can make an appointment and
(30:03):
get in. You can also call two eight one three
nine one zero one nine zero three nine to one
zero one nine zero to make an appointment, and you
can send me an email if all of this information
went by too fast and you're driving and you're busy,
and I will gladly send you this information and email.
My email address is Texan from France at gmail dot com.
(30:26):
Texan from France at gmail dot com. I want to
thank you for listening and caring about the issues that
put on this show. Folks. My name is Laurence. I
am the Texan from France and this has been Houston, PA,
Houston's public affairs show, Houston Strong
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