Champaign County Christian Health Center hoping to move into a space of its own – News-Gazette.com
URBANA â Eighteen years after it got its start offering free health care to the needy, the Champaign County Christian Health Center is raising money to move into a building of its own.
This faith-based free clinic is currently in a temporary location at First United Methodist Church of Urbana at 304 S. Race St. â which is at least its fourth location since its start in 2004.
The clinicâs leaders are grateful for the use of the church space, said Executive Director Crystal Hogue.
But at the church, such services as dentistry and blood draws arenât available.
Hours to see patients are offered just four evenings a month, and opportunities to expand services based on patientsâ needs are limited, she said.
âWe need more of a permanent location,â Hogue said.
The Champaign County Christian Health Center offers care to people who donât have health insurance or have insurance that leaves them with out-of-pocket costs they canât afford. Itâs supported by donations and grants, and all of its providers are volunteer doctors, nurses and others from Carle Health, Christie Clinic, OSF HealthCare and University of Illinois McKinley Health Center.
The clinic is currently open for free primary care, mental-health care and dietician services â plus spiritual care for any patients who want it â on every second and fourth Tuesday and Wednesday evenings of the month, but its leaders hope to resume a dental clinic and blood draws when the clinic is in a location of its own, Hogue said.
For now, thanks to an agreement with Carle, the clinicâs patients who need blood draws are being sent there for that service without charge, she said.
The clinic switched to telehealth visits and electronic medical records when the pandemic began, Hogue said.
It reopened for in-person visits last June at the church, by appointment only. Hogue said she hopes to be able to restore walk-in clinic times soon.
The president of the health centerâs board, Dr. Patricia McNussen, is a Carle specialist in neuro-ophthalmology who has been involved with the clinic since its start, and she sees the needs it fills.
âThere are a lot of people who canât afford insurance or canât afford good insurance,â she said.
By providing primary care to those patients, the volunteer providers can treat high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions, according to McNussen.
The health center believes in treating âthe whole person,â and its providers are compassionate and want to help people any way they can, she said.
She, too, is grateful to the church for the space the clinic is using, McNussen said, but having the clinic in its own space would take care of several issues and allow for expanding services and seeing more patients, she said.
At this point, the health center isnât looking to buy a building, but rather to find a location to rent for at least three years. Fundraising to date has brought in $95,000 toward a $150,000 goal â the amount needed for rent and any remodeling that will need to be done in the new space, Hogue said.
The goal is to move the health center to its own space by the end of the year, she said.
The ideal location would be in a former clinical space, Hogue said, but it may also be possible to convert vacant office space into a clinic.
There are some limitations on locations, however. It needs to be on the bus line and remain in Champaign-Urbana to make it accessible to patients, Hogue said.
To help raise the remaining money needed, the health center is holding a fundraiser dinner April 2 in the Chancellor Ballroom at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign.
Tickets are $50 and can be bought through the health center’s website at ccchc2003.org/fundraiser.
