News & Events

Clinic Updates

Here are some facts that might be of interest as Salem Free Medical Clinic finished up 2010.

  • After only eleven months in our temporary location at Portland Road we moved in September 2010 to our new clinic at 1300 Broadway Ave NE.
  • Immediately upon moving into our new home we added two more clinic times to our schedule for a total of 11 clinics available to our patients each month.
    • Acute Care Clinic (8)
    • Diabetic Clinic (1)
    • Mental Health Clinic (2)
  • In addition we had an Orthopedic Clinic available when there is a patient need via referral from our Acute Care Providers which means we had potentially 12 clinics available each month.
  • SFMC was able to help 1213 patients in 2010.
  • We had approximately 600 patient files at the end of 2010 which means many patients came to see us multiple times during the year.
  • 653 of our patients were men and 560 were women.
  • About 200 of our patients were between the ages of 18-30; 550 between the ages of 31-50; and 440 between the ages of 51-70.
  • Our Providers kept their pens busy writing 1549 scripts for our patients.
  • 1662 people volunteered in our clinics in 2010 which equals 6648 hours (6+ full time position hours)
  • In addition to volunteers actually at clinics, 5 volunteers have come in during the week to gift us with “office” help entering data, filing, setting up for clinics, etc.
  • In June 2010 we began a partnership with Easter Seals that provides SFMC with a part time employee that is paid by Easter Seals. This means that 4 days a week we have our front desk/front doors open from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  • In 2010 we began the dream of dental services for our community in earnest. A development team was put together, two new dental chairs, vacuum system and other supplies were donated and fully installed (ready to go) as we moved into our new building.
  • On December 31st our Medical Director, Dr. Laura Metzger, stepped down after doing an amazing job leading our clinic. Thanks, Laura!!!
  • As 2011 begins, Dr. James Byrkit, takes up the call and begins to serve as our Medical Director. Welcome, Jim!!!

Here are some dreams for 2011:

  • On January 4th SFMC officially hired its third employee. Trina Fowler joins the team with Todd Gould and Marie Howard. She will be working as our Volunteer Coordinator, job sharing with Marie.
  • We are in process of working toward opening a Pediatric Clinic for those children in Oregon that don’t have access to healthcare. These will be those children that are undocumented living in our neighborhoods and perhaps those that have recently moved here and are not yet on Oregon Health Plan/Healthy Kids programs.
  • We continue to dream of having the clinic open six days a week for our patients in some way. This means we dream of recruiting at least 40 additional Providers to help facilitate increasing our capacity to see patients.
  • We continue to pursue the Specialty Clinic model as we are able. By doing this we can help patients with chronic care issues in specialty clinic settings and free up appointments in our Acute Care Clinics for those new patients that come as well as our other regular patients.
  • We are working to open our dental clinic. Our development team is working on recruiting volunteer dental staff, fundraising/grant writing to sustain a dental clinic, policy writing and all the other things that are a part of opening a brand new work for SFMC.
  • In 2011 we anticipate broadening our financial support base to include more individual donors. This would include not only single gifts, but asking for commitments to monthly and/or regularly scheduled financial support to the clinic. Would you pray/consider making this commitment to the clinic?

Most Commonly Asked Questions

Here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions we receive:

Do we have dental services at SFMC?

We continue to work on recruitment of dental staff and obtain the funding to begin our dental clinic. We are working toward a March 2011 start date.

Do you need more volunteers?

We love volunteers and welcome more into our ranks (both medical professionals as well as those folks with other skills that are not in the medical profession). As we expand our clinic hours and diversify what services we offer our need for volunteers with a passion for helping others will increase as well.

Would you be able to come and speak to my group (church, organization, etc.) about what you do and the services you offer?

Absolutely…just go to the contact us page and send an email our way. We will get back to you and see how we can coordinate to meet your needs. Beware…we will also do our best to recruit you to volunteer with us as well.

How do I get in to see a doctor?

Starting in January 2011 we began giving appointments out for some of our available spots. Patients can call in Monday – Wednesday after 9 am and see if we have any open appointment spots. Remaining spots will be filled first come/first serve on clinic day. The number of patients we will be able to see is posted on the door. Patients begin lining up as early as 3 a.m. for these appointments. Staff arrives about 7 a.m. to open the doors to the clinic on clinic days and will give out the remaining appointments starting at 7:30 a.m.

How do I get my medication prescription refilled?

Because we don’t have Providers onsite during the week we are not able to do phone/fax refills. Patients must come into the clinic and be seen by a Provider to have their medication refills updated, so follow instructions given in question above.