Providing free primary health care is Clearwater woman’s mission
CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) ꟷ There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Tampa Bay area who live and work without the benefit of health insurance. There are many reasons for that. Many self-employed workers, hospitality and restaurant employees, and part-time workers do not have it. But Clearwater’s Jeannie Shapiro has been doing something about that.
Jeannie is the Executive Director of the Clearwater Free Clinic. The clinic is a mainstay in the community, providing free, first-class medical care to thousands of people living and working without health insurance.
Over the past 25 years, Jeannie has worked to transform a tiny clinic into a thriving facility with a two-point-five-million-dollar budget, a staff of 25, and 150 volunteers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and housekeepers. More than 11,000 patient appointments are met each year.
Yet Jeannie’s mission happened quite by chance. “I have a nursing background,” she explains, and as I was having lunch with some friends, I didn’t realize that one of them was on the board of the Clearwater Free Clinic. And then I got a phone call after lunch asking me if I would be interested.”
That was 1998. “I was actually hired as the Executive Director. I don’t know who I was directing because I was the only full-time staff. But the volunteers were amazing. We are still primarily volunteer driven; our donated services are nine million dollars a year.”
Those services include an in-house pharmacy, pediatric care, eye care, wellness, and behavioral health programs like smoking cessation. Lab work and emergency care are donated by Baycare hospital. “They realize our value within the community, keeping people healthy, out of the hospital, and out of the emergency rooms. So they are a very strong community partner of ours, she says.
Jeannie is quick to credit community partners, but colleagues like Marketing and Development Director Charlie Hart, say she is the real key to the clinic’s success.
“She had means, she had a health care background, and I think she was able to do the job. I mean she has just been unbelievable – the right person for all of these different roles and needs at the time.”
Jeannie says she is most proud of starting up the Clearwater Free Clinic’s nurse practitioner program, which includes her daughter Corey, and the addition of behavioral health services.
But for Jeannie the Clearwater Free Clinic strikes a more personal chord.
“Health care is really important,” she observes, “and to think that someone has to choose or can’t afford to go and take care of themselves, is very upsetting. So i think what brings me back are the staff, the volunteers, and the patients. We all believe in what we’re doing, and we see the results.”
Remarkable results.
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