Bucyrus Health and Wellness Center celebrates third anniversary

Three years after it opened on the eve of a global pandemic, the Bucyrus Health and Wellness Center continues to grow and expand services.

Clinic staffers and representatives of Mansfield-based Third Street Family Health Services, which operates the federally qualified health center in the back of Community Counseling and Wellness Centers' 2458 Stetzer Road building, gathered for a celebration at midday Thursday. The clinic provides primary care services regardless of patients' ability to pay.

"I see, especially within the last year, a lot more presence in the community and a lot more patient visits," said James Secrest, practice manager, who oversees the clinic's daily operations. "We look forward to keep expanding our services and our reach within Crawford County."

In addition to wellness visits and primary care, the clinic offers a MAT program — medication-assisted treatment for people dealing with addiction — and same-day visits for people with a critical health problem, allowing patients to avoid trips to an emergency room or critical care center, he said.

"It can be a brand-new patient walk in," Secrest said. "They do all ages; we do primary care for the most part, helping people meet their health goals and say healthy."

The clinic also offers women's health and well-child exams, adult vaccinations, full lab services, telehealth appointments and medical testing, he said.

"We partner with OhioHealth, so we are on their charting system, which gives us access to MyChart, where patients can schedule appointments, request medication refills, ask questions of their primary care provider, all through their computer or cellular device," Secrest said.

Clinic continues to grow

Opening the clinic in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, proved a challenge, said Peggy Anderson, Third Street's chief executive officer.

"It's been remarkable; we started January of the pandemic year, so with all the challenges of that, it's just a slower build — people, unless they were really sick, weren't getting care and we were trying to have folks stay safe," she said. "We gave a lot of vaccines out at this location, and so really proud to be part of prevention and just increasing the safety of community members here."

But in the years since then, the clinic has begun to grow. Secrest estimated Cindy Viers, the clinic's nurse practitioner, sees an average of 15 to 19 patients a day now.

"Our numbers, I believe, have gone up 30 to 40% since last year, especially as we become more known in the community," he said.

In addition to the clinic's services, it also offers referrals to other local providers and access to Third Street's network of services.

For example, Community Counseling "can refer directly to us, and vice-versa," Secrest said.

"We also will work with our dental department, our podiatry department, our psychology department for people who may face those barriers due to insurance, having no insurance — we can refer directly to one of our departments in Mansfield or Shelby to get those done," he said. "Our community health workers can help people get connected with food assistance, housing assistance, Help Me Grow for newborn children and also help them navigate some of the confusing systems that are set up, to make it an easier process for them. And a lot of those visits can be done in patients' homes.

"We take all insurances, no insurances — our goal is to remove any barrier to health care by not prioritizing money over health care."

Last year, Third Street added a transportation van that serves patients in Crawford, Ashland and Richland counties, Anderson said.

"If patients don't have a way to get here or can't afford any local options, then we have the ability to either bill Medicaid or, if they are low-income and can't afford it, and no coverage, we'll give them a trip here," she said. "It's just to their medical visits — we don't take them to the stores or anything else, it's really just to their appointments. But we heard so many folks say 'I can't get there.' Last-minute cancellations, no-shows. Again, always a big issue for us."

The clinic is assessing the possibility of offering dental services, possibly using a mobile unit, Anderson said. "We're starting to do a little bit of preventative work, where we can, but then assessing long-term, where do we need more permanent access to dental care, and can we be the ones to provide that?"

New health care provider is Crawford County native

"We've been lucky to have our provider here for now a solid two years, over two years actually, so that consistency has been really helpful in building that trust," Anderson said. "We are getting ready to change providers, which is always an interesting challenge, but Cindy will be staying with us in a different location, and we've hired a nurse practitioner who's actually from Crawford County."

The clinic's new service provider, Paula Severns, will be joining the Third Street staff soon to begin preparing to take over duties at the clinic in February, Secrest said.

Severns "is excited and eager to serve her own community, which that's always good, when you have that added, 'I really want to make my people happy and healthy,'" Anderson said.

ggoble@gannett.com

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Bucyrus Health and Wellness Center celebrates third anniversary