Free clinic founder, medical director, stepping down

April 04--Ten years after starting the only clinic that provides free medical care to uninsured patients in the Upper Keys, Dr. Sandy Yankow is resigning as medical director of Tavernier'sGood Health Clinic.

Yankow, 76, said he and his wife Nancy, an attorney, are leaving the Keys primarily because the house they have been renting is being foreclosed on.

"It's an economic thing for us," Yankow said.

The couple just bought a house in Albuquerque, N.M. "The food is cheaper, and the housing is cheaper," Yankow said.

Yankow, who has more than 35 years experience as a gynecologist and obstetrician, said he is not sure whether he will renew his medical license when he moves to New Mexico. One of the main factors in that decision is whether the state has sovereign immunity for doctors offering free medical services.

In other words, Florida acts as the malpractice insurer for free clinics like the Good Health Clinic. If a patient wants to sue, he or she must take it up with the state.

"For the most part, our patients don't sue," Yankow said. "They're just grateful someone is helping them."

The Good Health Clinic treats up to 600 patients a year, said Executive Director Jennifer Rickmann. With a budget of around $400,000 a year, Yankow estimates his office offers more than $8 million worth of medical treatment a year.

Part of the annual budget pays Yankow's $78-an-hour salary. He gets paid for 30 hours a week but estimates he puts in about 40 to 50 hours.

"I think they're getting their money's worth out of me," Yankow joked.

The clinic also works with specialists and other medical professionals in the Keys and in Miami-Dade County who offer their services free to patients. In the Keys, these include Lindsey Ekblom, a Tavernier physician's assistant; Key Largo nurse practitioner Jacqueline Gavin; psychotherapist Ruth Dailey Grainer, from Key Largo; Key Largo internal medicine Dr. Joanne Mahoney; Susana May, a Key Largo family medicine doctor; Charles Neiditz, an internal medicine doctor from Tavernier; and Alan Netzman, a Key Largo general surgeon.

Also, Key Largo nurse practitioner Robin Neville; gastroenterologist Neal Rakov, from Tavernier; Tavernier dermatologist Leslie Safer; Robert Temkin, a family medicine doctor in Tavernier; Tavernier cardiologist Abraham Wolfenzon; and Stanley Zuba, a Tavernier pediatrician.

Eye specialists in the Keys also donate their expertise to clinic patients. These include eye doctors James Gahagan and James Boilini in Key Largo, Lansaw Eye Care in Tavernier and Tropical Optical in Islamorada.

The clinic depends on grants and donations so it can treat low-income, uninsured patients in the Upper Keys$125,000 from Baptist Health South Florida, the faith-based nonprofit hospital group that operates Mariners Hospital in Tavernier. Monroe County funded the clinic with $60,000. While this money is greatly appreciated, how much will be donated varies year to year, Rickmann has said.

Yankow is not sure who the Good Health Clinic board of directors will choose as his replacement, but the clinic will go on.

"Hell yes," he said. "I look at it as a paid employee doing a specific job and getting procedures done we can't do here. It is these relationships that have gotten us to where we are today."

Rickmann said the board has "identified several qualified physicians to serve as medical director."

Yankow said he has enjoyed serving the medical needs of poorer people in the Keys, and said Monroe County's community has been particularly helpful in helping the Good Health Clinic do its job.

"We have loved living here in a community, which looks after and cares for its members less fortunate and in need," Yankow said in a statement.

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