Clinic kicks off fundraising campaign

SANDPOINT — Last year Heather Pauley’s life took a tailspin.

Her husband lost his job at a local lumber mill and she lost tens of thousand of dollars as a real estate investor.

Then her health, like the economy, took a downturn.

“It was bad timing,” Pauley said. “We’ve always had health insurance, but when my husband got laid off, that was our health insurance provider.”

She thinks her high blood pressure, dizziness, shortness of breath and thyroid problems were stress related.

As a 51-year-old with a family history of strokes, she was concerned.

“We had no money,” she said. “I couldn’t afford my regular doctor.”

That’s when she found Bonner Partners in Care, Inc. a non-profit clinic with 50 volunteers including 11 medical practitioners and 17 nurses, which charges patients on a sliding scale.

At the Sandpoint facility, she found the care she needed, she said.

“I only had to pay a dollar,” she said. “It was amazing.”

Serving 550 patients annually with exams, tests, medications and counseling, Partners in Care has an additional 600 contacts, or people it has served. It treats uninsured area residents like the Pauleys, who live in Priest River, and who have few or no other alternatives to health care.

Funded by grants, donations and a small pot of patient fees, the clinic kicks off a fundraising campaign this week.

Titled “Help Plant Seeds of Good Health,” the campaign hopes to add to the coffers that require $160,000 annually to serve its patients.

Catherine Perusse, executive director of Bonner Partners in Care Clinic at 1020 Michigan Street admits patients at 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday at the Panhandle Health facility in Sandpoint, which donates space to the clinic.

“We average about eight to 12 patients a night,” Perusse said.

In the past 18 months, she said, the clinic has seen a jump not only in overall numbers, but also in the number of middle-age patients, men and women who have lost their jobs, or their health insurance.

“They have never been unemployed in their life,” she said. “They have no idea how to access services.”

Board president Steve Elgar said his time volunteering at the clinic has been an eye-opener.

“It’s a huge part of Bonner County’s population, people with no insurance,” Elgar said. “Most of them are working. It is not a question of welfare or unemployment.”

Almost 17 percent of the county is without health insurance and still more are underinsured, according to the clinic.

“There is a subculture of people who deal with medical care without insurance,” he said. “If we’re lucky, we’re getting half of them.”

The clinic turns no one away, Sue Traver, a long-time board member said.

“We schedule enough patients to fill two hours,” Traver said. “Some doctors take more if there’s a need to.”

Many uninsured people either do not seek medical help, or they check into the hospital emergency room if their health hits the wall.

Medical bills are paid through an indigent care fund paid for by property taxes, Elgar said.

“Either we spend it on helping people, or property taxes for indigent care pays for it,” he said.

Rounding up funding to pay for clinic services is always difficult, he said, but the community has traditionally been generous. Last year a local unnamed foundation donated $9 for every dollar the clinic raised.

In addition, the board writes grants and proposals to make up the gaps.

Raising money is a battle, he said, but “It’s a heartwarming one, because people here are generous.”

Despite a federal health care mandate, he does not foresee any big changes in the number of uninsured in the next few years.

“It would be fine with me if we were put out of business because people don’t need us anymore,” he said. “But, I don’t see that happening in the next five years.”

To help or donate, or for more information click www.bpicc.org, or call (208) 255-9099.