The Tomah Health Community Foundation is helping area families who need medical care but are unable to pay for it. Members of the foundation donated $1,000 to the St. Clare Health Mission of Monroe County March 18.
Foundation president Brian Eirschele said the donation supports the mission of the foundation to help not-for-profit organizations that enhance the health of residents in Monroe County. “Health is everything in this world. It’s so important to be to sustain a healthy life and the foundation has been believing in that goal for over 25 years now,” added Eirschele.
St. Clare Health Mission medical director Michael Saunders, M.D. said the foundation’s support will help with supplies used at the mission’s clinic at the Mayo Health System Sparta campus. “We use donations like this to purchase pharmacy pharmaceutical supplies and software for our pharmacy program and other things that help support the services that our many volunteers provide to our patients,” said Saunders. “Without this type of support, we would not exist,” Saunders said of the donation.
The St. Clare Health Mission of Monroe County opened in 1996 as a non-profit organization to provide medical care for uninsured adults at their clinic in Sparta which is open the first and third Tuesday evenings of each month beginning at 5 p.m. No appointments are needed, and patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We see adult patients primarily because we’re just an every other week clinic. It’s primarily chronic problems. We see many patients with diabetes, Hypertension, asthma, COPD, those type of chronic diseases that need continuing care,” he said.
Saunders also credited the work of their volunteer staff which includes physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, certified medical assistants, pharmacists, social workers, and clerical personnel. “Obviously, we couldn’t do this without our volunteers. Tomah Health has been a tremendous source of volunteers for us.”
He said patients are tremendously appreciative of the care that they get from the volunteers in the organization.