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Community Care Clinic
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: 2020/07 – July | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography
The 2020 global pandemic has altered, either temporarily or irrevocably, the way organizations and businesses operate.
Executive Director Jerry Hermanson of Community Care Clinic of Highlands-Cashiers is not certain which will be the case, but for now there are operational procedures in place to protect the health and safety of patients and staff as COVID-19 continues to threaten.
Community Care Clinic’s mission is to enable, “The medically under-served to have access to affordable, quality healthcare.”
“We are pretty much a volunteer driven organization with over 40 volunteers,” said Hermanson, who’s been the director of the clinic since it was founded 15 years ago. “Yet, all our volunteers are in a high risk group, so we made the decision early on that even though we need to take care of the patients, we also needed to protect our volunteers.”
Overnight, Hermanson said the clinic had to figure out how to “make it work” with just a staff of three, plus a physician’s assistant.
“What happens now, is the staff members do the intake, documentation, screening … It works without volunteers right now because the volume of patients has dropped. We bring them in one at a time instead of having them in a waiting room, and we pre-screen over the phone. We get geared up with PPE, go out, check temps, give them a mask, and bring them directly into an exam room. With fewer patients it’s worked out really well and we are running the normal hours.”
Although Hermanson said he did notice an increase in volume going into June, as people began to feel more comfortable, there are no immediate plans “to go back to pre-COVID practices, as long as there is a concern over community spread.”
Currently, the clinic is still able to fulfill prescriptions. Patients call and a staff member takes it out to them.
