Andrea Benda

The Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) medical clinic is scheduled to open in early April, according to Dr. Stephen Schroering, one of the major moving forces to open a clinic for people without insurance or those who are under-insured. An announcement of the actual opening date will appear in The Citizen and online at Lehighacrescitizen.com if it is between publication dates of the printed product.

Andrea Benda, VIM’s executive director, has been in Lehigh since October working hard to pull everything together and to solicit volunteers to staff the clinic which will be open nightly from Monday to Friday. The location will be at 1154 Lee Blvd in Suite 2 for the present time.

Schroering noted the clinic has received its 501(c)3 non-profit status which enables it to be able to receive grants from both the state and from federal services in addition to local contributions from the community. Benda has experience in writing grant applications.

“This was really big to get our non-profit status which also gives us sovereign community status,” Schroering said.

Benda said an official name of the health clinic will be determined within the next few days before the opening.

Dr. Stephen Schroering

“We want to make sure our name implies correctly that we are serving the people of Lehigh and of Lee County,” she said.

She also said that to date there are already 45 medical volunteers to staff the clinic each night except for the weekend and they come from Lehigh and other parts of Lee County.

“We absolutely can use more volunteers,” she added. In addition to medical personnel volunteers, she said there are another group of about 20 volunteers who will be responsible for administrative work such as “qualifying people” for using the free clinic.

Schroering said those using information supplied from those using the clinic will be qualified during the day and then they can return that night for medical treatment.

“As I have said before,” Schroering continued, “we are opening this type of clinic for all the people of Lee County, but we wanted to base here in Lehigh.

SCHROERING SPEAKS: Dr. Stephen Schroering is shown here speaking before a group in which he explains the purpose of the new Volunteers in Medicine free medical clinic in Lehigh Acres. Photo by Mel Toadvine

“For those people who come to our clinic, they will have to prove they have no insurance or that they are under-insured.

“Now that means, for instance, a man who is working may have insurance with his employer that only covers himself and his wife and not his children. Since his insurance does not cover all of his family, he is eligible to bring his children to our clinic for health needs and our doctors will attend to their children since they are not covered on their father’s policy,” Schroering said.

“Then there are those who don’t have insurance because they are unemployed. Our clinic will be there to serve them, too. We want to make medical attention available to everyone who needs it. And there is no charge for our services,” he said.

An Internet site (Leecountyvim.com) will be developed to explain the process completely as what to bring to qualify for service, Executive Director Andrea Bender noted.

“That can mean a driver’s license, a utility bill. If they are working, we would need to know where they are unemployed with proof that their insurance doesn’t cover their children,” she said. “But for sure they will need their driver’s license or an official ID card and a copy of a utility bill proving where they live.”

“Our volunteers will be busy during the day to ‘qualify them’ so they can come back that night to be seen. We want to make sure everyone understands we are there for those who can’t afford insurance.

The clinic hours will be from 5 to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday.

Schroering noted that this clinic is not associated with a new clinic recently announced at Lehigh Regional Medical Center whose purpose is to take people who rush to the ER who don’t need emergency medical treatment and send them to a newly established clinic on the hospital grounds.

Schroering said the clinic at the hospital will charge for its services.

“And that is mainly the difference,” he said. “The ER at the hospital has been over stressed with people who don’t need immediate treatment and that is why the hospital came up with the additional paid clinic. Services in the ER are not free, nor will the additional hospital clinic be free and people should understand that,” he said.

“And those who need our services will not be asked to pay a cent. Now if anyone want to make a contribution, of course we will accept it because it takes money to operate our new clinic on Lee Blvd., but it will never be asked for from a patient,” Schroering said.

Both noted the help from an active board of directors which has held regular meetings to put things together so the clinic can open.

They include Mike Swords, Jere Carrick, Rick Anglickis, Edd Weiner, Beth Murphy, Laurie Jerriey, Oscar Gamble, Rusty Dunham and Dr. Schroering.

“They have been a very dedicated group. To show how hard this board has been working is that during the last meeting this past week they were there from 6 to 10:45 p.m. one evening. They all are very committed to what we are doing.”

Schroering announced plans for such a clinic in Lehigh back in December of 2009. At that time, he set a goal of having the free clinic open between 12 and 18 months.

“It’s now the 16th month and we are planning an opening in a few weeks,” he said. “We are very happy with how far we have come.”