Shepherd's Hope adds daytime clinic

Oct. 23--It would break Marni Stahlman if she were to think of the patients who don't get health care at her free clinics.

So instead, she focuses on each uninsured person who comes to any of the five Shepherd's Hope health centers.

"I look at the line and say that's one, plus one, plus one, plus one," said Stahlman, president and CEO of the clinics.

Stahlman is a force packed into a tiny frame, dashing around on high heels. Her clinics operating in Central Florida haven't seen their patient load abate, even after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Estimates show that nearly a quarter of Floridians are uninsured.

"The professional and personal goal of mine is to be the voice for that one in four," said Stahlman, looking at the people sitting in the waiting room of the Dr. Diebel branch on East Colonial on a recent afternoon.

Florida led the nation last year in the number of people who gained coverage through the health insurance marketplace. "And that's great -- but why then these patients are still here?" Stahlman said.

Since taking office in 2013, Stahlman has led the charge to bring Shepherd's Hope to the digital age and create collaborations with local health education programs to bring in student volunteers.

Her latest collaboration is with the UCF College of Nursing, which has enabled the Longwood branch for the first time to hold a daytime clinic once a week on Wednesdays.

"We've been busy," said Dr. Angela Ritten, assistant professor at UCF College of Nursing and supervisor of student volunteers, many of whom are already registered nurses completing their advanced degrees.

With no advertising, the word about the daytime clinic has quickly spread.

"Many of the patients are people who are employed and come here before they go to work," said Thomas Higgins, health center manager for the Longwood Shepherd's Hope Health Center.

The Dr. Diebel Jr. Memorial Shepherd's Hope Health Center in East Colonial also got a makeover last month, moving from a double-wide trailer to its new location at the Samaritan Resource Center, which during the day provides food and services to people who are homeless.

The new clinic has four exam rooms instead of two, but homeless patients don't make up the bulk of its patients. Many used the old location a couple miles down the road and are now coming to the new center, said Tim Cummings, the health center's manager.

Without Medicaid expansion and the upcoming end to the federal funds that help hospitals care for uninsured patients, Stahlman doesn't see the need for her clinics going away any time soon.

She is planning to eventually open a large clinic in West Orange and finally have a central office co-located with one of its clinics.

nmiller@tribune.com or 407-420-5158.

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