PLAN WOULD KEEP HEALTH CLINICS GOING

CAIRO, Ill. -- Community Health and Emergency Services Inc. has proposed to provide health care at three community health clinics being discontinued by the Southern Seven Health Department.

CHESI, which operates a megaclinic in Cairo and satellite centers at Tamms and Olmsted, has developed a proposal that would not only continue the programs but expand services, said Fred Bernstein, executive director of the Cairo-based operation.

Southern Seven announced recently that it was closing health centers at Golconda in Pope County and Rosiclare in Hardin County. The center at Metropolis in Massac County closed last fall.

The Golconda and Rosiclare centers will close at the end of the fiscal year June 30, said Sharon Mumford, Southern Seven administrator. The community health centers opened in 1994.

CHESI has submitted its application to operate the three health clinics to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service.

Federally supported community health centers offer health care to poor people at discounted prices.

"We could be ready to take over the operations July 1," said Bernstein.

CHESI also plans to open a satellite branch at Pulaski, which could be open by June 1, said Bernstein.

Southern Seven received an annual federal grant of $369,000 to provide services at the three centers but experienced continuing losses.

During a special February meeting, Southern Seven decided to get out of the community health center business."

The closures will not affect Southern Seven's Head Start program nor the rural health clinic that it operates at Shawnee Community College near Ullin.

"We're happy that CHESI is making application to keep the community health centers open," said Mumford.

"Community health centers bring much more to a community than just physician services," said Bernstein. "They establish a wide profile of health services in support of physicians' services such as health education, nutritional counseling and preventive health services."

"Our hope is to strengthen the primary-care service systems as well as other health-care systems in Pope, Hardin and Massac counties," said Bernstein.

CHESI has been in business for 15 years. It has been in its 20,000-square-foot building on a five-acre tract near Interstate 57 and Route 3 north of Cairo for the past four years.

Prior to moving into the clinic, the health group was housed on the top four floors of the U.S. Post Office in Cairo. The new building is a one-level structure that includes outpatient surgery, a dental clinic and an urgent-care facility around the clock.

The Cairo area had been without an urgent-care facility since 1988, when the city's hospital, faced with financial difficulties, closed.

Community Health Services was founded in 1974 and was operated by the Cairo Hospital until it became a separate entity in 1980.