Mission of Mercy: Mobile Medicine
New health care clinic for the poor rolls into Tempe

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
December 21, 2006

TEMPE — A trip to the doctor’s office can be a frightening and expensive ordeal for those without health insurance.

But it doesn’t need to be. A professional office visit in the Valley can be as free and fearless as going to church.

That’s where roughly 40 patients go the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. They see a licensed doctor for their ailments in a tiny but fully stocked office aboard a new mobile medical clinic at St. Margaret Parish.

The 40-foot clinic on wheels belongs to Mission of Mercy, a community organization founded by a former St. Maria Goretti parishioner in 1997. Medical and lay volunteers operate sites in several states healing patients who cannot afford health insurance.

Mission of Mercy rolled out its new clinic — a customized motor home — at the parish in October, but dedicated it Dec. 6.

The clinic has four permanent host sites in the parking lot of Valley churches, including Christ the King Parish in Mesa and its newest spot at St. Margaret. Mission of Mercy moved to the Tempe parish in October from a community site.

Dr. Brad Smith, medical director, said patients will often trust a clinic over a public facility.

Medical and community volunteers suspect that some of their patients may be undocumented immigrants. The church provides a greater sense of anonymity from public judgment and security.

“We have a lot of sick people who have no insurance,” Deacon Frank Galarza said of the community around St. Margaret. He specifically mentioned the children.

Only two percent of Mission of Mercy’s Arizona patients have some form of insurance. Nearly half of the patients are adult women and 32 percent are children.

Fr. Don Kline blessed the new clinic Dec. 6, the feast of St. Nicholas. He said the timing was appropriate because the saint was known for his great love for children and the poor.

A challenge grant from Thunderbird Charities, in addition to a grant from The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, provided enough for Mission of Mercy to purchase and retrofit the motor home.

The previous vehicle, used since Mission of Mercy essentially began, may be used to start a similar operation in another part of the country.

The new clinic has three slide-out areas, a third exam room and a second pharmacy nurse. The expanded pharmacy features locked cabinets, and the outside storage area minimizes setup time.

Roughly 20 volunteers staff the Tempe site. Nurses use the hall at St. Margaret as a reception area for registration and to record blood pressure, temperature and weight. They also do blood work.

Catholic medical student Hedy Cartmell signed up to staff the clinic because she thought she would work with patients requiring various types of treatment.

“Plus, I guess being Catholic you feel like you have to contribute something to life,” she said.

Many Mission of Mercy’s patients are chronically ill. The most common cases relate to blood pressure and diabetes. The clinic offers classes for diabetics to teach them about their dietary needs.

Other volunteers, such as Dixie Melby from St. Thomas the Apostle or Alice Ehmann from St. Francis Xavier Parish, serve as language interpreters. They staff one of the clinic’s Phoenix sites. The women enjoy getting to know the patients and tending to their spiritual and emotional needs as well.

“That’s where a lot of the healing takes place,” Dr. Smith said.

“We are all one family and families take care of each other,” said retired nurse Carol Long, a St. Bernard of Clairvaux parishioner. She volunteers in Phoenix.

Ehmann vividly remembers several patients including a young boy about 4 years old who came with his grandmother to the clinic two years ago. As an interpreter, she carries a medical dictionary with her.

The boy was so happy that she helped care for his grandmother, he insisted Ehmann accept his penny. She taped the coin to the front of her dictionary to remind her of how important the service is to the patients.