Northeast Health Center Providing Health Care for Low Income Citizens
Everyone is aware of the high
cost associated with attaining an
adequate health care plan Indeed,
the cost of health care in this coon
try has resulted in many citizens not
being able to afford any type of me
dical care
This is why the Northeast Health
Center located at 5329 N E Union
Avenue, is a valuable part of the
community
Our mission is to
provide health care for people that
would otherwise not be able to get
healthcare.' said Beverly A Lauck,
M N Manager of the Northeast
Health Center
The Center is one of seven health
care < limes npoiatnd by Multnomah
County The medical clinic serves
the areas north of the Banfield Free
way to the County line, with the
exception ol North Portland and the
St Johns area Willamette River
to 82nd Avenue
Northeast Health Center offers the
following services primary medical
care tilood pressure screening
communicable disease screening,
family planning, immunizations
pregnancy testing
IB skin test
iPPDl Well Child Clinic prenatal
care and WIC. all on a sliding scale
fee based on federal guidelines for
poverty
We charge a minimum fee of
$5 00 to our clients seeking service
here at the center However, if the
client cannot p.iy it on the day he or
site is seeking service we still see
them
They must pay the fee of
their next visit Lauck said
Tfie Medical Center also charges
a $3 00 dispensing fee to clients
who need medicine from the Cen
let's pharmacy Besides providing
base primary health care, Northeast
Health Center offers specialty ser
vices anti dental care on a limited
basis to their regular clients
I, one of our on going clients is
having cardiac problems and is not
on any sort of welfare, medicare, or
Blue Cross and met the income
requirements, we give that person a
voucher to take to the needed speci
alists The program is called Health
Source, we pay 50 percent of the
AFS rates, the other 50 percent is
the responsibility of ttie client,"
said Lauck
The Dental Clinic, likewise, is for
regular < lients with one exception
The Dental Clinic reserves two to
four slots for emergency dental
needs In order to receive the erner
gency service, an individual must
contact the Dental Clinic at
8 00 a rn in the morning
Lauck
sairl Die reason why we do this is
because the dental program is al
ways filled People tend to let their
teeth go even worse than their
bodies We are one of the few den
tai clinics that provide on going
dental care to people at a reason
able price."
T lie concept of providing health
care service for low income people
was started by Multnomah County
more than 15 years ago
This is
when the county started sending
nurses into the community to con
duct child clinics in local churches
It was during this period that the
County realized a large segment of
the population wasn't receiving pro
per health care
This lead to the
formation of the neighborhood
Health Center
Lauck said that the Health Center
is there for the community
We
are trying to reach out to the com
munity We feel there are still a lot
of people in the area that don't
understand what service we provide
or that we are here Our strength
here is that we want clients with
legitimate health problems to come
here for service
We want to be
their primary health care provider
and have a relationship with them ."
The Health Center has a field
nurse team program, in which nur
ses make house visits to pregnant
women who are high risks
The
nurse provides prenatal counceling
to that woman
Lauck said many who visit the
Clinic suffer from hypertension and
diabetes She blames this on im
proper diet, lack of exercise stress,
smoking drug and alcohol abuse
The Health Center serves 100
family planning clients per month,
200 prenatal clients, and from 100
200 children Lauck said many do
not take advantage of the Well Child
by
jer,v Game,
Clinic
Our pediatric services are
under utilized during the summer
No one can convince me that there
are children in the community that
do not need health care, whether
we are talking about immunization,
or well child examines, which pro
vide regula, checkups for children.''
said Lauck
Northeast Health Center has a staff
of 3 part time women health care
providers, one pediatrician, two
nurse practitioners, and one physi
cían The center is an appointment
clinic, which means that one must
have an appointment in order to
receive services at the health fácil
ity.
1
COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSE J fA N LYNCH DISCUSSES NUTRI
TIONAL PAMPHLET WITH CLIENT ELIZABETH BECKWITH
Photo by Richard J. Brown
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