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I received the following press release from Carrie Bittman of Mercy Health Clinic, which is over near the MVA at 7-1 Metropolitan Court.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2007

Contact:	Carrie Bittman
	(202) 352-8343
	carriebittman@aol.com

 

GAITHERSBURG HEALTH CARE CLINIC UNVEILS NEW FACILITY

- Rededication Ceremony
on Thursday, September 20 at 10 a.m. -

 

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The Mercy Health Clinic, a non-profit free health care clinic, will officially open its new expanded facility at a Rededication Ceremony on Thursday, September 20 at 10:00 a.m. All members of the community are invited to attend. The Mercy Health Clinic is available to uninsured, low-income adults who reside in Montgomery County.

The new Clinic boasts 5,500 square feet and features nine exam rooms, a larger pharmacy and nurses’ station, as well as an expanded records room and physician offices. The Clinic occupies a new building, conveniently located adjacent to the MVA, and includes state-of-the art equipment for its patients.

"We are thrilled to be in this new facility," said James Ronan, M.D., Medical Director of the Clinic. "Clearly the demand for free health-care services has increased. We are proud to offer quality care and provide a continuum of care to those in need in our community."

A new feature is a unique telephone system in the exam rooms that allows physicians and patients to converse through an interpreter in over 200 languages. The Clinic also offers educational programs in areas including diabetes, lifestyle and nutrition.

"I’ve been coming to the Clinic since March of 2004, it’s given me the opportunity to heal and recover," said Stephen Day, a patient at the Clinic. "They have given me medicine, family services and referral to specialists. I am most grateful and thankful the Clinic is there."

Mercy Health Clinic services are available for uninsured adult residents who meet low-income guidelines and are not eligible for government assisted health care. To qualify, enrollees must demonstrate they do not have personal assets, financial reserves or sufficient family resources to support medical are.

Since its opening in October of 2000, the Mercy Health Clinic has treated nearly 4,000 patients and conducted more than 25,000 patient visits. The Clinic is primarily volunteer-run, and is operated by over 125 licensed, volunteer medical professionals and staff. The Clinic and staff have received numerous awards for its volunteer service to the community. Please call the clinic at (240) 773-0300 for more information.

• Opinions sought on a Gaithersburg Health Fair

  Harley King wrote to ask for input on organizing a Health Fair in Gaithersburg, this coming December (2007).

  Objectives:

  Increase health awareness by providing health screenings, activities, materials, demonstrations, and information; Increase awareness of local, state, and national health services and resources; Motivate participants to make positive health behavior changes; Provide immunizations for children and adults; Teach self-care practices.

  I would like a strong minority slant to the conference such as Spanish advertising and the availability of translators. I believe Gaithersburg Hispanic groups would benefit most from this kind of conference.

  What do you think? Thank you,

  Harley

  Harley can be reached at harleyk@gmail.com

Over the several months that I’ve been running this blog, I have had occasional requests to put up posts about one thing or another. Generally, I’ve not been open to these things, even when I was somewhat sympathetic to the writer’s point of view; my position has generally been that the writers have the ability to leave comments after every post, and that this served the same function as letters to the editor did in a newspaper. I’ve been willing to allow, within reason, the occasional off-topic comment largely because I’ve not provided another mechanism to post thoughts on new topics.

Today I received an email that made me rethink this a little bit — it was a request that I post something about a public service event that he was planning. Thinking about this a bit, I realized that it was in fact the kind of thing that I would like to put up if I had noticed it, if I had the time, and especially if I had a few things that I could put into a single post. Thus, starting tomorrow at the earliest, I will at least intend to put up a post containing public service announcements, or PSAs. By PSA, I mean a note regarding activities of non-profit and charitable groups (including government and educational institutions), with notices or reminders of up-coming events, calls for volunteers, requests for input/comment on an event in planning, etc. Announcements will be limited to about 200 words; if you need more space than that please give a link to a web page with more information, or wait until the post goes up and leave a comment. Announcements are subject to editing, and I reserve the right to reject any announcement I consider to be inappropriate. If you don’t manage to get an announcement to me in time to make that week’s post (see note on deadline below), you can of course leave an announcement as a comment. Send your notes to gaithersblog _at_ gaithersblog.net, and please include the word “PSA” in the subject line. Please also make sure to include contact information — the name of a person to contact, an email address, and/or a telephone number.

The second new feature is that I will begin to consider “letters” for publication. Again, to the extent that I have any to publish, these will only be published at most once per week, in a separate “letters” post. Understand that, since readers have the ability to comment on every post I put up, I am thinking here more of standalone essays conveying the writer’s opinion on a particular topic, as opposed to a reaction to a particular post or comment.

To be considered for publication, a letter must be sent to me by and attributable to the author, must be original, and must not have been published elsewhere (I have limited ability to verify these things, but I will reject or pull from the blog anything that I find to have violated any of these rules). Also, the letter must be relevant to Gaithersburg, and must not be something that I feel would have been more appropriate as a comment in an earlier post. I am not setting a specific limit on the length of a letter, but I reserve the right to reject a letter for any reason, including excessive length. Publication of a letter is not and will not be an indication that I agree with or endorse the author’s point of view. Send your letters to gaithersblog _at_ gaithersblog.net, and please include the word “LETTER” in the subject line.

I plan to try to do these posts on Tuesdays, so if you want something (either PSA or letter) included, please try to get it to me by mid-day on Monday; let’s say by 3:00pm.

Letters will be attributed to the author’s first (given) name only or by the “name” typically used to post comments on Gaithersblog. I make no claim to be able to authenticate the identity of any individual and thus, as usual on a blog, the claimed identity of any author should be treated with skepticism.

Persons who submit either a PSA or a letter should understand that this is just a small, personal blog, and is unlikely to ever be able to provide the level of exposure to your announcement or letter that would come from publication in a real newspaper such as the Gazette. However, it is another opportunity to participate in the discussion. Also, please understand that, as I am just one person doing this by myself, I cannot promise that I’ll be able to get to these posts in any given week, or that I will even be able to respond to your request one way or the other.

Both of these features are being adopted on an experimental basis, and may be discontinued at any time at my sole discretion.