Destin church's free clinic offers Hope, healing

In the month since it opened, Hope Medical Clinic on Beach Drive has seen patients for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and “everything else,” the clinic’s Dr. Sam Traughber says.

The free clinic’s facilities inside Destin Church of Christ don’t look like much — a reception area, a short hall, two examining rooms — but Traughber, one of the clinic’s volunteers, said it can provide a lot of help for local residents who don’t have insurance.

“We’re able to diagnose and provide ... treatment, unless they require surgery,” the doctor said, “or drugs that are too expensive, or diagnostic tests that we can’t afford.”

The church’s Tim Roberts said there were many treatments they could provide, since Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast is working with Hope Medical.

While Roberts, nurse Jan Jordan, nurse-practitioner Melissa Key and medical director Luke Lentz attend Church of Christ, Traughber said he goes to a neighboring church — but he lives in Destin, and volunteered when he learned about the clinic.

Roberts told Destin City Council last year that the church wanted to offer free medical care so that people with diseases such as diabetes could receive treatment early. The alternative is often waiting until the problem becomes acute and then going to the emergency room at much greater cost.

The clinic needed council approval because the Industrial zoning at the church property didn’t allow such a facility. A number of neighbors protested that the clinic would attract vagrants and become a nuisance, but the council voted to make the change.

The church proposed multiple restrictions to prevent disturbing the neighborhood: It doesn’t take walk-in patients, the clinic is inside the church, patients can’t park off church property and the clinic’s city permit will be reviewed annually so it can be revoked if problems emerge.

Roberts said that since the clinic opened in March, it’s been seeing patients one day a week — now up to two, Tuesdays and Thursdays — and taking appointments at any time. He said they’ve seen a little over 20 people so far, and heard no complaints from the neighbors.

The qualifications to be seen include being an Okaloosa or Walton County resident; having a working phone number; being an uninsured employed adult or a family member; and household income less than 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That 200 percent figure would equal $21,660 for a single person, $29,140 for two people and $36,620 for a family of three.

“We’ve seen a lot of people from Destin, a couple from Fort Walton Beach, (some) from out toward Santa Rosa Beach,” Roberts said.

“We haven’t even begun marketing, and they’re already calling us.”

NEED HOPE?
For more information or to make an appointment, call Hope Medical Clinic at (850) 837-8424.