HEALTH CENTER GREETS GUESTS

An open house Sunday at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center made what director Charlotte Craig said is the county's "best kept secret" a little more public.

Craig and members of the Cape County Health Department Board have been plugging department services for years, but the open house attracted medical professionals, health board members, community leaders and other interested county residents.

They toured the expanded pediatric primary care area, now in the basement.

For the first time this year, Missouri recognized National Public Health Week, which runs Sunday through Friday.

Craig said she hopes the special week will help people learn about the free medical services that are offered to all county residents.

"We want to educate people that there is a public health facility here that belongs to them," board member Diane Howard said. "There are many services available to the public not based on financial need. Many things are available to the whole community or based on medical need or risk factors."

The public health center offers immunizations, pre-natal care, home visits, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV testing and counseling and other services.

Martha Vandivort, known for her activities with the League of Women Voters, recently received some free health-care service from the center.

A diabetic, Vandivort had to have a toe amputated late last year. By Christmas, she was ready to go home, but she was unable to change the dressing on her foot. It was too painful physically and troubling emotionally to look at the wound.

Doctors wanted her to stay in the hospital for another month or so for monitoring. But thanks to a home visit arrangement with the Cape County Public Health Center, Vandivort went home on Dec. 23, 1994. Nurses came daily to change the bandages.~

"It made me feel good to know they would be there to take care of my foot," she said at Sunday's open house. "I honestly believe the Cape County Health Department is the reason I lost just a toe instead of the whole foot. Those girls are good."

The department began in 1973 as a group of nurses working in people's homes. In 1986, Cape County voters passed a mill tax for the department, and a building was erected at 1121 Linden in 1989.

Even then, Craig knew it wouldn't be long before expansion. A grant helped pay for the expanded pediatric care clinic, which handles about 3,500 office visits a year. It is only for children in low-income families or on Medicaid.

The old pediatric clinic space upstairs has been donated to Cross Trails, an adult primary care clinic not associated with the Cape County Health Department. The center space will be used temporarily as Cross Trails' administrative offices until a building can be found.