Giving Tuesday Fundraiser
Give the gift that keeps on giving, accessible free health care to our Florida Keys uninsured neighbors. Every $1 donated provides over $10 in health care services!
Dr. Steven Lawyer is at the Good Health Clinic!
Dr. Lawyer has been my family doctor since I moved to the upper Keys over 30 years ago. He has always gone the extra mile for his patients. He joined the clinic as Medical Director in August of last year after volunteering for a few months. As Medical Director, Dr. Lawyer oversees the healthcare of […]
FREE COVID-19 TESTING FOR OUR PATIENTS
In partnership with the Monroe County Department of Health, Good Health Clinic is offering FREE access to COVID 19 diagnostic testing to anyone in the community.
Welcome To Our New Website!
As you can tell we have recently upgraded our website. We hope to bring you improved functionality, usability and put all the information you need at your fingertips.
Become A
Patient
Become A
Supporter
About Us
Patient
Portal
Recent Posts
Press
Health Foundation of South Florida Invests in Monroe County Health Collaborative
Three Monroe County non-profit health centers have joined forces to create a health care
collaborative with the goal of increasing access to and expanding primary care for low-income children, pregnant women and adults. The new partnership, made possible by a nearly $1 million grant from the Health Foundation of South Florida, will also help the health centers coordinate services so that patients are better served.
Keys AHEC Health Centers, Good Health Clinic, and Womankind will be working closely together to deliver a coordinated health services plan that better serves low income patients. “Efforts in developing this plan will have a tremendous impact on access to
primary, specialty and ancillary care services for patients. Patients will be able
to better manage and understand available health care resources to them and
honestly it’s about time” stated Michael Cunningham, CEO of Keys AHEC.
Health Foundation of South Florida’s leadership team and board were pleased to see this
collaboration among agencies and recognizes it as a model program.
Steven E. Marcus, President and CEO of Health Foundation of South Florida added “One of our principal strategies as a foundation is bringing together partners and fostering collaboration from across communities and sectors to find innovative, impactful ways of addressing our most entrenched health challenges. The Monroe County collaborative is a wonderful example of this, one that demonstrates that, by joining forces, we can accomplish far more than we would individually.”
“Ensuring healthcare access for our low-income and working class is essential to maintaining a healthy, productive community here in the Florida Keys. This collaborative work is a major step in facilitating comprehensive access for all our residents from Key Largo to Key West.” stated Kate Banick, Executive Director of Good Health Clinic. Efforts will result in a county-wide coordinated network of care for the uninsured and the medically underserved, where providers will work more closely together to achieve efficiencies both for patients and for their operations by creating interoperability among providers. Executive director of Womankind, Cali Roberts is excited for the progress in providing safety-net services.
“Our agencies have always been supportive of one another and worked closely side-by-side. The opportunity to formalize overlapping services will be a tangible benefit to the underserved populations in the Keys.”
The mission of Health Foundation of South Florida is to invest in and be a catalyst for
collaborations, policy and systems change that improves the health of South Florida communities, with a focus on vulnerable, low to moderate income populations. Established in 1993, the nonprofit foundation has awarded over $131 million to nonprofits providing programs and services in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. For more information, visit hfsf.org and follow
@HealthSFL.
Chamber leader: ‘My time to give back’
KEY LARGO — Reliable and stable are words often used to describe the community-minded Roberto Alonso.
“I’m just a simple man,” he said of himself.
Alonso has spent time as the manager of a small bookkeeping rm. “Before that, my trade was ne jewelry hand-engraving, a dying trade that I loved very much because
of its artistic content and acquired special skills,” he said. He’s been an insurance agent since 1975.
A long-time sole proprietor of a local small business, Alonso has garnered the confidence of his fellow Key Largo Chamber of Commerce board members, who have again named him chairman-elect of the organization, where he also heads up the Governance Committee. Alonso has owned and operated Borland and Associates, the local Florida Blue contracted agency in the Pink Plaza since 2004, and has been awarded into the Federally Facilitated Marketplace Circle of Champions for the last three consecutive years by enrolling 20 or more consumers during the open enrollment period.
“I also provide my customers with insurance planning and enrollment in the life, dental, ancillary, supplemental, disability and retirement market segments,” he said.
Alonso’s role with the Key Largo chamber, and the community, is important to him.
“As a business owner, it’s important to be a part of the chamber since we are in an unincorporated area of Monroe County. This gives us a voice and this is an important resource to have especially during this global pandemic,” he said.
Alonso serves on the boards of the Florida Keys History and Discovery Foundation, Friends of the Murray Nelson Center and the Center for Independent Living in the Keys, is chairman of the Good Health Clinic and secretary-elect of the Key Largo Rotary. He also volunteers with Guardian Ad Litem which he believes to be “a noble cause.”
“This is my time in my life to give back to the community. Many people supported me when I was growing in my career and anything I can do to help, I will do. This is a community I love with all my heart,” he said.
Alonso said many of the organizations he’s involved with have been trying to nd ways to help and support the community while adhering to social distancing mandates to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. “Like many others, we are trying to find our way through this,” he said. When asked how the COVID-19 pandemic may affect local business, Alonso said, “We are in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants kind of situation. Most of us are navigating through this in the dark.”
The road to recovery may be long.
“This began as an unprecedented health crisis and will have several chapters. We are in the beginning chapters and after this are the economic consequences,” Alonso said.
“We are going to come out of this wiser. We are going to know who are friends are and how to be self-sufficient and be better prepared. We will pay dearly for these lessons, but this a magnificent country and we are resilient.”
Between Alonso’s work and civic duties, he voraciously reads, writes, exercises and oil paints. He enjoys public speaking and misses watching live sports.
Alonso and wife Ana will soon celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary. Alonso said he often wonders two things: how Ana has put up with him for so long and how his golden retriever Savannah became his boss.
Good Health Clinic touts new services
BY CHARLOTTE TWINE
Free Press Staff
TAVERNIER — The Good Health Clinic, which is tucked away in a corner of a nondescript office building at 91555 Overseas Highway, is easy to drive by and miss.
You might even drive by it twice. Its quarters are a bit cramped, with staff having to share narrow office spaces and desks. But looks can be deceiving. The modest facility
provides an invaluable service: free health care to those who can’t afford it.
“A lot goes on here,” Executive Director Kate Banick said. “We pack in a lot of activity.”
And recent activity includes building a new staff structure, streamlining the application system and installing new medical equipment. The clinic was founded in 2003 by gynecologist Dr. Sanford Yankow to provide free medical care for the uninsured in the Upper Keys. He served as the sole medical director for over a decade until he retired to New Mexico in May 2014. With his retirement, Banick explained, the board of the clinic decided to make some organizational changes. There are now two co-medical directors on staff, Dr. Brent Sperry and Dr. Gene Manuel, as well as several “mid-level”
providers, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, with a variety of specialties.
As a result, the staff is “more well-rounded, with a broader medical knowledge base to pull from,” said Banick. Services include preventative care, urgent care, chronic disease management, women’s health care and family planning. And as before, Good Health, which is funded by grants and individual donors, works with a network of local doctors who provide referred specialty care: orthopedics, dermatology, gynecology, mental health, ophthalmology/optometry, physical therapy and nutritional counseling.
“But we’re not a perfect system,” Banick said. “For example, we still need a urologist.” However, efforts to find specialists to work with the clinic are an on-going process, she said. Prospective patients apply to the clinic annually and, if accepted, receive all services for free. But Banick wants to dispel the notion that only the jobless and homeless are able to receive the free medical care. The clinic’s criteria is that one has no health insurance and that one’s income is equal to or less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $23,539 per year for one person. Banick pointed out that this means a single person making $11 an hour at 40 hours a week would qualify for free health care; for a family of two, the poverty line is $31,859 a year, and so on. Also, the paperwork has become less intimidating. “The application process is easier than it ever was,” said Karen Haymore, who worked for the Good Health Clinic under Yankow. Instead of outsourcing the paperwork to Baptist Hospital, the clinic now has patient care coordinators who file the applications, which has reduced the approval process from one to three weeks to one to three days, with same-day approval for emergencies. The actual form itself is only three pages to fill out, and prospective patients have to supply identification, proof of income and proof of address.
For Banick, the streamlined process is to avoid the scenario of “Oh, if I get sick, I’ll just go to the emergency room” and to get patients in for critical wellness exams. One female patient was recently found to have a lump in her breast during a wellness exam and was eventually diagnosed with breast cancer. The Good Health Clinic provided all the necessary care for this patient, from the diagnosis to the radiation and chemotherapy, and she is now
cancer-free. Had she waited to see a doctor until she was sick, the outcome may not have been so positive. New medical equipment has been donated by the Ocean Reef Community Foundation. The Welch Allyn Connex integrated wall systems, which are digital machines that allow the practitioners to quickly take blood pressure, temperature, pulse and oxygen level, make the diagnostic process much faster “so we are more efficient at seeing patients,” said Banick. Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show there are many locals who can take advantage of the Good Health Clinic’s services. As of 2014, of the 19,991 residents in the Upper Keys (Tavernier, Islamorada and Key Largo), 4,773 didn’t have insurance and 6,993 were below poverty line.
Banick encourages those who are not sure if they qualify to call and ask. For more information, the Good Health Clinic can be reached at 305-853-1788. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
YOUR GOOD HEALTH MATTERS
The Good Health Clinic is proud to be celebrating its 10 Year Anniversary. Coinciding with its anniversary celebration, the clinic is also celebrating new staff and a new medical provider structure which focuses on improved patient care and efficient use of donor dollars. The Good Health Clinic, the only FREE healthcare facility in Monroe County, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to provide healthcare to the homeless, uninsured and low income residents of the Upper Keys. While The Good Health Clinic focuses on providing free primary care, it also has a network of charitable doctors and medical facilities which provide secondary, tertiary, ancillary and specialty healthcare services. The clinic’s board and staff are working diligently to expand services provided through the Good Health Clinic and ensure this needed community resource continues for years to come.
With this fresh start, the Board of Directors at the Good Health Clinic is proud to announce the appointment of Kate Banick to the role of Executive
Director. With over 10 years of non-profit experience, including time working in the public health sector, Kate brings an array of skills that include
management, operations, public relations, and fundraising. Her high level of energy and motivation has already positively impacted the clinic. Having
visited from her home state of Connecticut, she fell in love with the Keys and has called it her home since 2002.
The clinic also boasts new Medical Co-Directors, Dr. Eugene Manuel and Dr. Brent Sperry, both talented Board Certified Internal Medicine physicians
and long time members of our community. Each Medical Director offers over 30 years of experience collectively covering areas of private and hospital
practice, medical business management, and charitable work for underserved populations. These ‘physicians’ association with Mariners Hospital also
allows for continuity of care between hospital and outpatient setting for Good Health Clinic patients.
Along with the new directors, the clinic has engaged nurse practitioners who focus on providing care with a holistic approach to patient health. This new multitiered staffing structure provides patients the benefit of a broadened scope of medical knowledge to address their health issues, and also allows the clinic to be more economically efficient so every donated dollar has a more significant impact. Funding for the clinic comes from Baptist Health South Florida, Monroe County Human Services Department, event fundraising, private foundations and individual donors. Efforts at the Good Health Clinic are largely powered by in-kind donations, volunteers and local medical providers who donate their services. The clinic cares for over 600 patients in the Upper Keys who qualify for services.
Tavernier free clinic taps new executive director
Kate Banick has been selected as the Good Health Clinic’s new executive director. Banick, who moved to the Florida Keys in 2002, has more than 10 years of non-profit experience, including time working in the public health sector. The Good Health Clinic, now in its 10th year of operation, is the only free healthcare clinic in the Florida Keys. Funding for the clinic comes from Baptist Health South Florida, Monroe County Human Services Department, private foundations and individual donors.
Efforts at the Good Health Clinic are largely powered by volunteers and local medical providers who donate their services. The clinic cares for more than 600 patients in the Upper Keys who qualify for services. Along with the new director, the clinic is now staffed with two nurse practitioners and also has new medical co-directors, Dr. Eugene Manuel and Dr. Brent Sperry, both board-certified physicians in internal medicine and long-time members of the community. The Good Health Clinic is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Eligibility guidelines may be found at the clinic or online at thegoodhealthclinic.org.
Clinic board names new members
UPPER KEYS — The Good Health Clinic has announced four additions to its board of directors. They are attorney Scott C. Black of Vernis & Bowling
of the Florida Keys, real estate broker John D. ElKoury, Pastor Kerry Foote of Burton Memorial United Methodist Church and Chris Vogt, principal of Vogt-Spear Construction. “We are excited to welcome new members to the Good Health Clinic board, each offering different perspectives,” said board Chair Jill Miranda Baker of Mariners Hospital. “The clinic is strategically prepared for changes and growth expected with healthcare reform. We are
focused on the health of the community and reaching those who need our assistance and care.” Black has practiced law at the Islamorada office of Vernis & Bowling for 15 years. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, but grew up in the Florida Keys and graduated from Florida Keys Community College.
He went on to study criminal justice at Florida State University and graduated from Stetson University College of Law in 1998. The Tavernier resident currently represents the Monroe County School Board, city of Layton and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. El-Koury has worked as a real estate professional since he moved to the Upper Keys 25 years ago. Born in Elizabeth, N.J., he grew up in Miami and began his career with the U.S. Coast Guard. He has been the managing broker and vice president of Realty-World Freewheeler since 1994. A resident of Tavernier, El-Koury is a graduate of Leadership Monroe and has served as president of the Florida Keys Board of Realtors. Kerry Foote, who joined the Good Health Clinic board earlier this year, has been pastor of Burton Memorial United Methodist Church since 2006. The Tavernier resident also manages the Daily Bread Food Pantry and has a bachelor’s degree from Asbury College in Kentucky and master of divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in
Orlando. He served in youth ministry roles at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg and First United Methodist Church in Hudson, Fla.
Vogt, a Key Largo native, also joined the Good Health Clinic board earlier this year. He spent two years in the Navy, then attended college in Orlando. He moved back to the Keys six years ago to run Vogt/Spear Construction, a family-owned construction business. His company managed the open ing of new Sandal Factory stores in Marathon and Key West. He was a licensed foster parent for three years and has been volunteering with St. Justin Catholic Church’s annual event for eight years. The new board members join Miranda Baker, Dan Cole, David DeHaas, Claudia Stober and Shawn Tolley in overseeing the only 100 percent free clinic in the Florida Keys. The Good Health Clinic serves more than 600 Upper Keys residents and employee who are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and unable to obtain health insurance of any kind. Sponsored in part by Baptist Health South Florida, the clinic receives no state or federal funding. For more information, call 853-1788 or visit www.Give2GHC.com.