Your donations help volunteers like Margaret McCarthy, RN, work for our patients.

his month we celebrate our Fifth Anniversary providing free medical care to those who cannot afford or do not have access to basic health care. Amazingly, we have been able to provide services to 2,056 individuals because of the tireless efforts of our loyal professional and lay volunteers and donors like you.

Five years + 7,163 patient visits + 19,890 volunteer hours = Estimated market value: One million dollars Estimated community value: Priceless

To continue, we still need you, really need you!

We would love to report that our services are no longer needed but that is still a dream. We are proud of our record but demand has soared. Today, 12% of Iowa County adults under 65 are uninsured and unemployment has increased from 4.3 to 7.6% since we opened our doors. Patient visits have increased steadily and the variety of services needed has multiplied. We can only respond as much as our resources permit. To date:

• Our Prescription Assistance Program has saved 403 patients an average of $6,010 per year per patient.
• Our new one-on-one English as a Second Language Program has helped about 40 adult learners, many of whom are clinic patients.
• Our referrals services now include mental health, orthopedic and osteopathic consults, physical and occupational therapy, eye and ear exams, pulmonary function tests, colonoscopy surgery and diabetic classes.
• Our larger space shared with Access Dental Clinic and Reproductive Health has helped us accept more patients.

Can we tighten the belt any more? We are always looking for ways to provide the most efficient care possible. We are all squeezed by economic pressures and doing the most with what we have. Our expenses are few but they are essential. While we continue to seek foundation and corporate grants, we cannot survive without our individual donations.

Our goal for 2012 is simply to meet the demand for our existing and expanding services. We hope to hire a part-time nurse coordinator to help us provide better continuity of care and we need to increase funds for medications and supplies.

Please join us by giving a generous donation. Together we can continue to work wonders, one person at a time.

Sincerely,