New clinic aims to care for underserved downtown Las Vegas

There are few feelings worse than being sick or injured and not having the means or ability to seek medical attention. Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada has been trying to make sure no one has to suffer through that scenario for six years at its Paradise Park Clinic, 4770 Harrison Drive, No. 200, and in October, the free clinic opened its second location, the Ruffin Family Clinic, at 1240 N. Martin Luther King Blvd.

"Everything we do in the whole clinic is completely free," said Dr. Rebecca Edgeworth, medical director for Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada. "Free exams, free tests, free medicine, and we can do that because we have some very generous donors, including Phil Ruffin, who owns Treasure Island, and we have a dedicated group of volunteers."

The clinic has a small paid staff but more than 450 volunteers, in both medical and other positions, including a support staff that helps people go through the paperwork to determine if they qualify for the clinic's services.

"That's the first step: to see if they're eligible to be a patient," Edgewood said. "To qualify, you have to make less than (double) the federal poverty level, you have to have no insurance, and you have to live here."

The health care system in the United States is considered by many to be a work in progress, and while the Affordable Care Act brought health insurance to millions who were previously uninsured, there are still those who fall through the gaps. People who work part time or earn more than the federal poverty level — but not enough to afford insurance — often end up simply hoping they won't get sick or hurt. The homeless and undocumented often resort to going to the emergency room for procedures that are not really emergencies or shouldn't be, but they have nowhere else to go — or didn't until Volunteers in Medicine came along.

"We do preventative care, give them a little medicine and try to keep people out of hospitals," Edgeworth said. "We have OB-GYNs; we do dermatology, cardiology, rheumatology ... we do a lot of -ologies."

The original clinic was a repurposed county building in Paradise Park. The new Ruffin Family Clinic was built for the clinic and designed to be in the neighborhood for years with room for expansion. A lead-lined room in the back of the clinic is ready to become the X-ray room when funds can be acquired for digital X-ray machine, an expensive purchase.

"We saved for years to be able to build this from the ground up," Edgeworth said. "It's been our dream to open a clinic here. This is another area in great need. The other clinic is concentrated on medical care. This clinic is much, much, much bigger, and we're able to expand our services."

In addition to the medical services, the nonprofit is expanding into social services, mental health services and the service Edgeworth said she finds the most exciting: dental health care.

"We already have all the equipment for the dental suite, but it isn't all in place yet," Edgeworth said. "We'll be working with UNLV and (the College of Dental Medicine at Roseman University of Health Sciences)."

The nonprofit gets much of its funding from major donors, including several corporate and private foundations. It also seeks grants and works with other entities to make grant proposals. It seeks community partners that don't duplicate its services but complements them, such as a recent grant from Dignity Health that provided a van that allows the clinic to transport clients from Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada to receive medical attention. The same grant also pays for a year of salary for the driver.

"As we grow, obviously, the budget grows and the more services we can expand to and offer," said Amy Schmidt, executive director of Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada. "Our funding gets bigger every year, and, so far, we've been very blessed that we've had funding resources, and we've been able to keep pace with the growth over the past six years."

The funding has allowed them to offer resources, including a wellness class called Building Healthy Habits, which focuses on nutrition and diet, stress management and other things nearly anyone could benefit from. To keep these services operating, the clinic reaches out to the community for donations of money and time.

"We do one large special event a year in early November, the VMSN Ball, which raises about a quarter of our annual operating budget," Schmidt said. "Maybe more in a good year."

The Ruffin Family Clinic is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and noon to 8 p.m. Tuesdays. Visit vmsn.org or call 702-967-0530.

— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.