Wyandotte Health Foundation gives $133,000 for KU health clinic in Kansas City, Kansas

A University of Kansas health-care clinic that serves the uninsured will keep its doors open in 2004, thanks to a $133,000 grant from the Wyandotte Health Foundation. The grant was announced today by Barbara Atkinson, dean of the KU School of Medicine.

The Kansas City, Kan., foundation's grant to the Kansas University Endowment Association will provide funding for the operating expenses of the Silver City Health Center, 3015 Strong Ave., Kansas City, Kan. The clinic is one of six area "safety net" clinics that provide services on a sliding scale to Kansas residents. KU purchased the clinic in 1997.

"The Silver City Health Center provides a necessary service to our community and is a part of the KU Medical Center's dedication to the people of Kansas City," Atkinson said. "We are grateful to the Wyandotte Health Foundation for their support and their ongoing mission to improve the health of area citizens."

A. Candace Moseley, m'94, medical director, said the clinic serves both adult and pediatric patients, providing well-child visits, immunizations, management of chronic conditions - including diabetes and high blood pressure - as well as treatment of acute illnesses such as ear infections, bronchitis and the flu.

"Our clinic is like a small town doctor's office in the middle of the city," Moseley said. "Our goal is to provide affordable comprehensive health care to the members of our community while promoting the clinical education of physicians. We serve a largely low-income group of people, many of whom have no insurance and wouldn't have a place to go if we didn't have a sliding fee program to accommodate them."

Moseley said the clinic would have been in danger of closing if it had not received the grant.

"We operate at a loss," she said, noting that of about 1,600 patients who visited the clinic from January until September 2003, 48 percent had no health insurance. The clinic has historically been funded by the departments of internal medicine and pediatrics at KU, Moseley said, but with state budget cutbacks, there was less support available. The departments currently fund the salaries of faculty members who staff the clinic.

William Epperheimer, president of the Wyandotte Health Foundation, said the foundation recognized the community's need for the clinic.

"Our foundation's mission is to promote and improve the health of Wyandotte County citizens, especially the indigent," he said. "In view of the fact that the viability of the Silver City Health Center had been questioned, we were pleased to provide a grant to defray operating expenses to assist in keeping that clinic open."

In addition to providing services for the community, the Silver City Health Center also helps train residents completing their education at the School of Medicine. The clinic is staffed by 13 residents in the combined internal medicine and pediatrics program at the KU School of Medicine. All KU residents are required to work in a clinic for a half-day a week over the course of the four years of their training. Since Moseley began directing the clinic in 1998, the number of residents has increased from four to 13. The additional staff members helped the clinic increase access at the location by offering expanded hours.

"It's so important to provide care to the members of the community who otherwise could not afford it," Moseley said. "When we have an uninsured woman come in for a mammogram for the first time in five years and we are able to catch a disease early before it can kill her, it makes this so worthwhile."

The Wyandotte Health Foundation is a nonprofit foundation created in 1997 using the proceeds of the sale of Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. The foundation's mission is to promote and improve the health of Wyandotte County citizens, particularly the indigent, through grants and collaborative efforts.

The foundation's gift counts toward KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.