Matt Driscoll
Neighborhood Clinic serves Tacoma’s neediest. COVID has caused demand to ‘skyrocket’
The volunteers — nurses, doctors, support staff — are covered in personal protective equipment, head to toe.
One waits at the entrance, screening visitors: providing squirts of hand sanitizer, masks, and taking temperatures.
On this Thursday night, a steady stream of people with nowhere else to go will walk through the door and be seen for whatever is ailing them, regardless of their ability to pay for medical care.
In other words, it’s just like any other night during the Neighborhood Clinic’s 37 years of existence — only we’re in the middle of a pandemic, making it that much more challenging for the nonprofit to fill its vital role in our community.
Not that you sense fatigue, worry or desperation from those powering the clinic to life.
“The pandemic has really just illuminated the need for this kind of resource,” said Elena Fulton, a 23-year-old who first volunteered at the Neighborhood Clinic while she was an undergrad at the University of Puget Sound.
Fulton is one of more than 100 local doctors, nurses, clinical support staff, interpreters and social workers who volunteer at the Neighborhood Clinic, which was first launched in 1983 by Father William “Bix” Bichsel, the well-known St. Leo’s priest, and Gloria Hall-Kidd, a parish nurse.
Operated out of a side door of the old brick building that was once home to St. Leo’s school on South Yakima Avenue, the Neighborhood Clinic has long had a mission of serving Tacoma’s neediest.
Some arrive at the clinic on the edge of Hilltop with health insurance, but more than 90% do not.
Some patients speak English, but in 2019, more than 30 other languages were represented.
Some of the people who receive medical care here have homes, but roughly a third are homeless.
Breaking down potential barriers to health care for these populations has always been the Neighborhood Clinic’s goal.
The clinic’s patients depend on it, said Benita Ki, the clinics executive director.
But with COVID-19, that need is even more pronounced.
“Before COVID, we would have — on any given night — a line out the doors, waiting for (the clinic) to open,” Ki said.
“We’re starting to see our numbers skyrocket.”
It’s a troubling but unsurprising trend, given the way we know the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the community.
Today, on top of its regular clientele, the Neighborhood Clinic is serving an increasing number of patients who have recently lost their job and health insurance, Ki said.
The clinic has also seen more patients who don’t feel comfortable in other medical settings, whether it’s related to COVID-19 or other factors, like immigration status, she added.
On the ground, according to volunteer social worker Charlotte Burns, that means being prepared to treat people with chronic health conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, as well as familiar ailments like wounds or sprained ankles.
“We see literally anybody, for just about anything,” Burns said. “Our main purpose is to bridge the gap for … the people who don’t have health insurance.”
As Ki noted, that gap has been exacerbated by COVID-19, which is frightening when you consider that last year, prior to the pandemic, the clinic served more than 1,100 patients and covered the cost of more than 100 prescriptions.
“We’re starting to see the stretch and the limits of our capacity,” Ki said, noting that, in addition to the volunteer contributions of medical providers, the clinic is supported by grassroots community fundraising and support from local health care giants like CHI-Franciscan.
“We’re also seeing people who are really grateful, because they have nowhere else to go. … We’ll see anyone who comes in,” Ki added.
For Fulton, that’s precisely the appeal. After graduating from UPS in 2019, she briefly left Washington for California, only to return to Tacoma and volunteer work at the Neighborhood Clinic.
Fulton is currently applying to medical school, in hopes of one day becoming a doctor.
What she’s seen during her hours at the clinic is a big reason why, she explained.
“I spent as many nights as I could here in college, because I just loved it. It just filled me up to get to know my community a lot better, and to get to serve in any way that I could,” Fulton said. “Especially with COVID … the fact that we can serve so many people in our community, and take really good care of them, I think that’s really inspiring to me.”
“I think this is very much what health care should be about, which is it’s not a resource you only get to have if you … have a certain amount of money,” she added.
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