CROSS TRAILS CLINIC TO EXPAND

Cross Trails Medical Center has received $200,000 in federal funding to open a third primary care clinic.

Officials of the not-for-profit organization are scouting for a Stoddard County location, said Vickie Smith, Cross Trails' administrator.

The organization operates clinics in Marble Hill and Cape Girardeau.

The Stoddard County site "was part of our original plan," Smith said. "It's working out just about right."

Smith is awaiting word on when the funding will be made available.

The Cross Trails clinics provide primary medical care to noninsured and underinsured adults and children on a sliding fee basis and to people with private insurance plans. The clinics also serve Medicare and Medicaid clients.

Cross Trails opened its first clinic in Cape Girardeau in 1995 through a cooperative effort by the health departments in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Stoddard counties.

The three counties are all considered medically underserved areas because residents lack access to primary care or to physicians who accept Medicare and Medicaid clients.

The Stoddard County site "means that people will have access to health care who didn't have access before, or it wasn't within a reasonable drive," Smith said.

Debbie Pleimling, director of the Stoddard County Public Health Center in Bloomfield, said the community needs the clinic.

"We get several calls in the office from people looking for a doctor," Pleimling said. "Most of them can't afford to pay. A sliding-scale-fee clinic is needed in Stoddard County."

Her staff often refers those people to the Cross Trails clinics in Cape Girardeau or Marble Hill, she said, but some don't have transportation or can't afford the gasoline for the trips.

Pleimling said Bloomfield would make a good location because it is the county seat and close to Dexter, Stoddard County's population center.

Pleimling's department is working on plans to add on to the public health center in hopes of opening a primary care clinic.

She thinks her facility would make a great location for the new Cross Trails clinic. She said she has already offered the space to Smith.

"It seems to work well at the health departments. We see over 1,200 people a month coming in our doors. I feel like if we had the clinic, it would be utilized," she said.

Pleimling said area hospitals have already expressed interest in opening a clinic in the Bloomfield area. "So I really don't feel like we'll have problems bringing in a physician or nurse practitioner," she said.

The renewable funding was provided to Cross Trails through an appropriation to the Missouri Primary Care Association.

In addition to the annual funding, the Cross Trails clinics also generate income through office visit fees, Smith said.

Smith credited U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, for the appropriation.

The Cape Girardeau clinic is staffed by Drs. Charles LaStrapes and Rod Crist. Crist also works one day a week at the Marble Hill clinic, which is served full time by Penny Hill, a nurse practitioner.

A full-time physician, Dr. Ed Doyle, will be staffing the Marble Hill clinic by Oct. 1. The Marble Hill clinic averages approximately 30 patients a day, while the Cape Girardeau clinic serves approximately 45 patients daily.