Cornerstone Health Services

11:55 AM Posted by CANBlog

Hello from the Medical Clinic, or what we now call Health Services. Why the name change? If you have been keeping up with changes here, you know a lot is happening at Cornerstone and in the clinic. When I was brought on board in November, medical services were all we had. We are in the process of adding dental services, nutritional classes, cooking classes and a fitness center- so the broader term ‘Health Services’ includes everything.

To catch you up on everything, let’s start at the beginning. The medical clinic has functioned as part of the general operating business of Cornerstone for about 10 years. Generous donations and grants have helped develop the medical clinic over the past decade. In the fall of 2010, two large grants were received that will help complete a big piece of the leadership team’s vision for Health Services.

The first grant was from Tarrant County Indigent Planning Committee (TCIPC), which is a non-profit group formed by 4 hospital entities: Texas Health Resources, Methodist, HCA and Baylor. These groups recognize the importance of free clinics, such as Cornerstone’s, in taking care of the working poor without insurance. The grant will allow us to put into place an infrastructure that will build capacity for the clinic and avoid high emergency room costs for our patients. It will also help further our goal of transitioning the clinic to a full time multi-service clinic.

In addition, the development of the Vision Clinic through grants and donations from Alcon Labs continues. When completed, Cornerstone Health Services will be the only known clinic that provides the removal of cataracts without charge to uninsured patients.

A former Cornerstone AmeriCorps VISTA member wrote the second grant we received this past fall. The AstraZeneca Foundation awarded us a grant that allows us to expand our staff to include a medical provider, chef, and exercise trainer, as well as develop a large portion of the Cardio CAN program. Cardio CAN will include cardio and diabetic education along with a cooking class and exercise training. The goal is to provide our patients a total program focused on nutrition, education and fitness that will make positive, lasting changes in their lives.

The pieces are quickly falling into place, as we just hired our new Chef, Joe Patrick! Joe (pictured above) comes to Cornerstone with a very impressive background in the restaurant business. He will assist in developing the nutritional program for our patients and providing cooking classes in our new kitchen.

Curriculum for the diabetic education piece of Cardio CAN is progressing steadily as well. Each semester, students from TCU’s Harris School of Nursing participate in a new useful project for the clinic. Last semester, they developed very impressive education posters to be used in the diabetic program. The next class will actually develop the material to be used in teaching our patients a better way to eat and be healthy.

On top of the great progress we’ve mentioned already, we were very excited to receive a grant this past month from North Texas Specialty Physicians to assist in completing the exercise facility, allowing us to complete the Cardio CAN program. We have the equipment but need to develop a viable environment for the equipment to be used. Soon, we will have an exercise trainer on staff to put the exercise program to work for our patients.

As you can see, there is a lot going on in Health Services! But we still need your help. Not only do we need funding for continued services, we need YOU. We need medical providers such as physicians, NPs, PAs, MAs and people who can speak Spanish. Search your heart; if you are interested in volunteering, please call me at 817-632-6000. Until next time, God bless all of you!

Lorene McCoy
Director of Health Services

To see pictures of Cornerstone's Health Services, click here.