Category: St. Clair Health

Helping meet the needs of everyone in St. Clair

Story by Jackie Walburn

Photos by Graham Hadley

A primary care clinic with a holistic approach, the Easterseals’ Community Health Clinic in Pell City, began and continues as a collaborative community effort to serve St. Clair adults without health insurance. 

A year after its July 2018 opening, the volunteer-staffed clinic serves 380 patients and has logged more than 1,600 office visits. Located at 205 Edwin Holladay Place in downtown Pell City, the clinic shares building space with a Community Action agency, a mental health clinic and Christian Love Food pantry, agencies that help each other serve clients’ “mind, body and spirit.

“Ten months after we got serious about it, we opened the doors to the clinic,” says David Higgins, executive director of Easterseals of Birmingham, which also operates a Pediatric Therapy clinic in Springville.

Because of the success of the Springville Pediatric Therapy clinic and the known need for services in St. Clair County, where some 12 percent of adults have no health insurance, the community clinic “seemed a logical next step as an Easterseals endeavor,” said Higgins.

He credits support and enthusiasm from Jefferson State Community College, Samford University and University of Alabama at Birmingham nursing programs, the town of Pell City, St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital – plus a long list of civic, church and community groups – for supporting the clinic.

Volunteers key

Volunteers, including three physicians and three nurse practitioners, staff the clinic, which is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Two part-time administrators – Pam Thornburg, who manages the administrative front end of the clinic, and Letisha Crow, who administers the clinical end – were hired recently. “We have good volunteers, and we want to be respectful of their time,” Higgins says.

But volunteers – including Frances Burnete, Ruth Pope and the team of medical professionals who donate their time – remain key to day-to-day operations.

 A belief in the need for the clinic prompted volunteer Burnete, who is retired after 50 years in the insurance business, to volunteer and keep volunteering at the clinic, where she is referred to as “Aunt Frances.” She says she feels “a kindness and understanding for the people who are our patients,” and believes in the work being done.

Volunteer and retired nurse Ruth Pope handles intake for new clinic patients. “This clinic was so needed,” she says, and now so appreciated. Encouraged to volunteer by friend and fellow volunteer Dr. Christy Daffron, department chair for the nursing program at Pell City’s Jefferson State Community College campus, Pope’s volunteer job is to sign up new patients.

The clinic charges $20 a visit for established patients and $30 for walk-ins, who are seen on Monday mornings. Patients are adults ages 19 to 64 without health insurance or Medicaid whose income falls within federal poverty level guidelines. Because Alabama is one of 14 states that have not expanded Medicaid, the state has a population of adults, many who work, who fall into a “coverage gap” and do not have health insurance coverage.

The doctor is in

Pell City native Dr. James Tuck is one of three physicians who volunteer and regularly see patients at the clinic.

 “The people we see are in desperate need of this service,” says Dr. Tuck, who grew up across the street from the clinic location. “It’s easy to see the need and the appreciation.”

Tuck’s family roots are in St. Clair County, and he has been in medical practice in his hometown for 36 years, now working with a local urgent care clinic. His first job out of medical school was in the current clinic building, he recalls, when the building housed the St. Clair County Health Department’s obstetrics clinic. “This is kind of bringing the past and present together for me.”

Mind, body and spirit

The clinic targets overall wellness with a holistic approach, Higgins says. “It’s primary medical care, but we look at root causes and what we can do to make life better for every patient,”

New patient intake includes a complete health assessment covering medical, social psychological, family, work, diet and living environment. “All these things help get a good handle on what’s going on with patients,” Higgins says, and may identify other needs patients have.

The clinic offers physical therapy, health and wellness education classes, chronic disease management for things like diabetes and COPD, as well as high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

The clinic also works with a volunteer pharmacist, Elaine Hagler, who provides a discount list for many maintenance medicines, including access to insulin and other expensive maintenance medicines.  While it helps patients find affordable maintenance medications, the clinic does not stock or prescribe controlled medications or narcotic painkillers.

Preventing disabling conditions

Easterseals, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, has always emphasized services to people with disabilities of all kinds. And, Higgins says holistic and preventative medical care through clinics like the one in Pell City can prevent medical conditions from becoming a debilitating disability.

 “Some medical conditions, left undiagnosed or untreated, can result in complications that lead to disabilities,” says Higgins. Diabetes is a good example and is listed among conditions recognized by the ADA, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Untreated diabetes can affect all major organs and result in blindness, kidney problems and increased risk of stroke and heart attack.

“Diabetes is something that can be regulated, but keeping it regulated can be expensive,” Higgins notes.

“That’s where our patient assessments come in,” and where the clinic’s efforts to help patients with access to affordable maintenance medicine, including insulin, are making a difference in many patients’ lives.

Clinical training, too

Teaching is also a part of the clinic mission, as nursing and nurse practitioner students from colleges, including Jefferson State Community College and Jacksonville State University, volunteer and complete nursing clinical training at the clinic.

Higgins says it was conversations with Dr. Daffron at Jeff State and Debbie Duke, Congregational Health Program director at Samford University, both nurses and nursing professors, that helped spark the clinic’s formation. Providing healthcare in St. Clair County was something they wanted to do.

Both schools and others continue support. And, Project Access at the University of Alabama at Birmingham partners with the clinic when patients need referrals and appointments with specialists.

Coming together for worthy cause

As the clinic begins its second year in operation, Higgins says one of the most rewarding aspects of the new effort was “seeing how people came together to make change happen with a goal of being able to serve people who need help.”

A plaque listing the names of clinic founders and supporters is crowded with names of people and organizations that helped Easterseals Birmingham bring its first community health clinic to St. Clair County.

The list of 2018 Foundational donors “who believed in us when we were only a vision” includes: Area Health Education Center, Benjamin Moore Paints, Bill Hereford, City of Pell City, Cropwell Baptist Church, Dispensary of Hope, Empowered Church Health Outreach, H2H Golden Design, Hattie Lee’s, Home Depot, Jefferson State Community College, Jerry’s Carpet Service, Ken Knight, Morning Star Storage, Rick’s Custom Painting and Wallpaper, Room by Room, Samford University, Scotty Gray Flooring, St. Clair County Baptist Association, St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Susan Bush, UAB Project Access and Wally Bromberg Photography.

Perfect location prepped by volunteers

The clinic’s location in downtown Pell City, in a city-owned building, came about through “graciousness” and hard work by volunteers, says Higgins, a retired Moody police officer who lives in St. Clair County.

The worse-for-wear offices needed painting and new flooring, all provided by volunteers with donated supplies. The volunteer workers converted the offices into three exam rooms, several offices and a providers’ room and meeting area that the volunteer medical professionals use when needed.

With community resources just next door, the location proved perfect for the clinic with accessibility and a history as a former county health department site.

Easterseals: Taking On Disability Together

Clinic sponsor, Easterseals of the Birmingham area, is one of eight rehabilitation facilities owned and operated under the Easterseals Alabama, Inc, according to its website at eastersealsbham.org.

Easterseals has served metro Birmingham and the state since 1950 when the program Alacrafts began vocational training for disabled individuals. That program grew into the Spain Rehabilitation Facility near UAB that focused on physical medicine, rehabilitation research and education.

Higgins notes that the Pell City clinic is a first community clinic for Easterseals’ Birmingham area organization, and he hopes that it can be “a model to be replicated” elsewhere.

In addition to the new clinic, services offered and managed through Easterseals of the Birmingham area include:

Camp ASCCA, Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults, a year-round camp on Lake Martin that offers rehabilitation and recreation for more than 7,000 people annually.

Two pediatric clinics – one in Pelham and the newest in Springville – providing speech, occupational and physical therapies, including early intervention, for patients up to 21 years old.

An adult program at the Birmingham headquarters on Beacon Parkway that provides evaluations, vocational training, job readiness and placement, computer skills training for adults, in addition to transition services for high school graduates.

A medical assistance grant program that helps individuals and families purchase medical equipment and make needed home modifications.

100 years of service

Nationally, Easterseals celebrates 100 years of service in 2019 and is America’s largest nonprofit health care organization, serving some 1.5 million people annually. In addition to serving children and adults living with disabilities, Easterseals also serves transitioning military disabled and other veterans since World War II.

Easterseals was founded in 1919 as the National Society for Crippled Children, the first organization of its kind. Founder Ohio businessman Edgar Allen, who lost a son in a streetcar accident and helped build a hospital in the child’s honor in his hometown, founded the organization to address the lack of services for children with disabilities who were then often hidden from public view.

An annual Easterseals fundraising campaign initiated by the society in 1934 introduced specially designed “Easter Seal” stamps that donors used on envelopes and letters. By 1967, the group’s work was so associated with Easterseals that the national society officially adopted Easterseals as its name. Today, the organization headquartered in Chicago with 69 affiliates nationwide.

More services on the way for region

Story by Scottie Vickery

Photos by Graham Hadley

and Submitted

Just five months after Northside Medical Associates opened its ACCEL Urgent Care Clinic, Pell City veterinarian Ken McMillan had a potentially lifesaving visit there in April.

He’d had eye surgery for a detached retina in Birmingham the week before and wasn’t feeling well. Since his primary care doctor at Northside was out of the office, McMillan saw Dr. Jeremy Allen, medical director at ACCEL. When McMillan’s lab work was abnormal, Allen ordered a CT scan at the facility’s onsite imaging center. That’s when he discovered the blood clot in McMillan’s lungs.

“We were lucky he was as diligent as he was and had the technology available to do that,” said McMillan, who received treatment and is on the mend. “It could have ended up saving my life.”

The story is one example of how St. Clair County residents are taking advantage of the first-class medical services being offered close to home. All over Pell City, practices are growing, offices are expanding, and technology is being added and utilized at a rapid pace as local health care providers continue to invest in their patients’ well-being.

“We want our patients to be confident that the care they’re getting here is as good or better than anywhere else,” said Dr. Rock Helms, CEO and president of Northside. “I’m proud to say that, in this rural area, we’re providing state-of-the-art care.”

PCIFM expanding

Providing better and more convenient care for their patients is also the driving force behind Pell City Internal and Family Medicine’s expansion, according to Dr. Rick Jotani. The practice, which has a main office in St. Vincent St. Clair’s Physicians Plaza, is building a much larger facility on property adjacent to the site of its satellite office next to Publix on U.S. 231 in Pell City. “This will allow us to consolidate our two locations under one roof, making things more convenient for our patients,” he said. “Every service they need, whether it be labs or imaging, will be there.”

The new office, which should be completed by the end of the year, will be double the size of the two current locations combined, Jotani said. The new facility will allow the practice, which currently offers family and internal medicine, women’s health and wellness, sports medicine, pediatrics and aesthetic procedures, to expand.

ATI Physical Therapy will be part of the new building, and Jotani and his partners, Dr. Barry Collins and Dr. Ilinca Prisacaru, have plans to add more primary care physicians and sub-specialists over time.

“This will give us the space and flexibility to be able to do that,” he said. “Dr. Collins and I started the practice in 2012, and we’ve been very well-received by the community. This is a reflection of that. We’ve continued to grow and get better and will hopefully continue to do that for many years to come.”

Northside setting pace for growth

Northside has been growing since opening its doors in 2001 with four physicians. The practice now has four locations and a staff of more than 150, including 12 doctors and 13 nurse practitioners, Helms said. Patients can receive primary, specialty and emergency care, get lab work and advanced diagnostics, and pick up prescriptions all under one roof.

Over the past year, they’ve added 3D mammography, the urgent care component and have formed an independent lab, expanding the menu of screenings they offer, not only to their own patients but to those with other doctors, as well. “If you see a primary care physician or a specialist somewhere else, you can come here and get labs, and we’ll send them to your doctor,” Helms said. 

Additions like the urgent care and 3D mammography have made a significant impact on patient health, he said. “With the 3D method, you get multiple images that are so much more detailed,” Helms said, adding that the technology is especially helpful for patients with dense breast tissue, a history of cancer or implants. “If you put the images side by side, you can see a tremendous difference. It’s much easier to pick up cancers.”

Urgent Care a new component of primary care

In a new trend in health care, Northside opened an urgent care center on its campus. The ACCEL center is open seven days a week and allows patients to quickly see a physician for things like strep throat, bronchial infections, abdominal pain and sprains.

Patients who see a primary care physician at Northside have the added benefit of knowing the urgent care staff has access to their charts and medical histories.

“It provides a much more seamless transition,” Helms said. “We saw an opportunity to better serve our patients, and it has been well-received. We’ve had patients come and thank us for doing this.”

More growth, more services

Here’s a look at how other providers are striving to meet the growing demand for health care in St. Clair County:

St. Vincent’s St. Clair recently earned a 5-star rating for hospital quality from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The 40-bed facility, which opened in 2011, is the only hospital in the county and one of only five in Alabama to earn the distinction.

The rating is based on 57 different benchmarks in six areas, including patient experience, effectiveness and timeliness of care, and efficient use of medical imaging.

Lisa Nichols, a registered nurse and the hospital’s administrator, said the distinction is the result of the staff’s commitment to providing quality, compassionate care.

“I’m so very proud of the work of our leadership and of our associates to ensure that quality and patient safety remains at the forefront of everything we do,” she said.

You don’t need 20/20 vision to see that the new home for James W. Bedsole Eye Care building, currently under construction on an outparcel site in front of Publix, promises to be state-of-the-art. “We want to be a destination for eye care,” said Bedsole, adding that the building should be finished by year’s end. “It’s going to be unique,” he said.

The new facility will be about twice the size of Bedsole’s current office downtown and is designed to accommodate new technology and an expanded optical gallery. The building will be handicapped accessible and easier for older patients to navigate. In addition, Bedsole will be hiring more staff and will eventually add another doctor to the practice.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide a better experience for our patients,” Bedsole said. “We offer a full scope of services now, but this will give us the ability to deliver those services in a more efficient manner,” he said.

UAB Callahan Eye located a satellite in Physicians Plaza in 2017 next to St. Vincent’s St. Clair, and it continues to thrive as a regional source for ophthalmology and optometry services in its Suite 240 location.

The clinic offers comprehensive adult and pediatric ophthalmology and optometry, plus an in-house optical store featuring a wide selection of designer eyeglasses and sunglasses from brands such as Ray-Ban, Coach, Maui Jim, Tom Ford, Costa del Mar, Burberry and Vera Bradley. Specialty eye services include glaucoma and cataract evaluations and screenings.

Wellness center, more expansion in planning

Story by Carol Pappas
Discover Archive photos
Submitted renderings

No sooner had Dr. Rock Helms cut the ribbon on the state-of-the-art, 50,000 square-foot Northside Medical Home earlier this year than he was envisioning Northside’s next phase. After all, in an ever-changing medical landscape, Helms usually blazes a trail right through the middle of it.

Helms and his partners, Drs. Michael Dupre’, Steve Fortson, Scott Boykin, Tom Perkins and Hunter Russell are united in the vision that patient-centered health care means putting the patient’s needs at the center of everything they do. That’s why you see expansion after expansion, improvement after improvement.

Beginning from a 3,000 square foot, small town doctor’s office, Northside Medical Home now encompasses three building phases, a cutting-edge imaging suite, access to more than a dozen specialties all under one roof, infusion center, laboratory and diagnostic center.

So, what’s next? A wellness center, he said, complete with indoor pool, workout facilities, classrooms for activities like aerobics or spinner biking, racquetball, physical, occupational and massage therapy and a walking track. He even envisions day care for ill children and after-hours daycare.

Helms and the partners at Northside are in the early stages of planning a wellness center through a partnership among community members, government and private entities to help further its development. When it comes to fruition, it would top a longtime wish list for the region.

“I’d love to see the senior center move there as well as a daycare for children,” he said. Both would fill a niche needed. Seniors would have access to many more activities through a wellness center and staying active is vital to their everyday lives.

On the daycare issue, he noted that after hours care is essentially not available, yet parents’ jobs may not fit the usual 8 to 5 work day or a Monday through Friday schedule. This would give them an option.

And where do children go when they are sick, and the parent must work? Helms sees the wellness center daycare for children when they are ill as a natural fit. “We have the ability to take care of them with RNs,” he said.

The daycare could even be used on an hourly basis for parents who want to work out in the wellness center.

Having an indoor pool would fill a variety of quality of life needs. The high school could have a swim team. Water therapy and swimming for exercise could be an integral component of programming there.

 “We’re in the early stages working with community partners to develop it,” Helms said. “We don’t want to own it, but we are willing to take the lead on it to make it happen.”

That is evident in the architectural drawings already done by Russ Realmutto of Birchfield-Penuel Architects for the proposed 50,000 square foot center on property targeted next to Northside Medical Home on a ridge overlooking Interstate 20. Drawings indicate it will be two stories with plenty of glass to give a bird’s eye view high above the heavily traveled highway.

It all centers around the question Helms continues to ask – ‘What if…?’ It’s a question he asks all too often. And he generally answers it with a well thought out plan that benefits the entire community.

That’s why you see innovative programs like Northside’s CARE Team, which sees about 200 people, providing services inside and outside the office to keep them healthier and out of the hospital. It was the first of its kind in the state.

‘What if?’ is why you see a patient-centered medical home with specialties ranging from vision to cardiology, from gastroenterology to general and oral surgery and an in-house pharmacy. 

And it’s why the dedicated staff has grown from a few in those early years to more than 150 today. Or Northside clinics are found in Moody, Springville, Ashville and Trussville.

What drives the planning for more, Helms said, is how much Northside and its partners are able to improve the quality of care here at home. “They get better care, and patients love it. It is rewarding to see patients come and thank us because they can see a doctor here and have their testing done” in their own hometown.

But the drive doesn’t stop there. Helms hopes to develop an urgent care center within the main operation at Northside, a vision of Dr. Dupre’s, expanding hours to seven days a week and giving patients the ability to have better continuity because they will be cared for at their own medical providers’ offices.

Stressing that it, too, is in the “early works,” a feasibility study is being done for an outpatient surgery center at Northside. And initial discussions are being held for partners on senior living and patient rehabilitation facilities.

Northside has added the latest in CT scanners for its growing, cutting edge diagnostics, and 3-D Mammography is on the horizon.

“We are always looking for ways to improve upon things,” Helms said. “I’m a builder by nature. I like to build things. I guess it could be selfish. I get a charge out of seeing good things happen.” l