Engage Free Medical Clinics

ENGAGE OKLAHOMA

The Engage Free Clinic Rural Health Care Association

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ENGAGE OKLAHOMA, is a new rural, free health care association that is specifically designed to give existing or startup free health care clinics the tools they need to succeed and support them. We understand the unique challenges facing rural health care because we are all rural free health clinics ourselves. Because we feel it is our calling we are all volunteers, and all of our associational benefits are free.

Overall, healthcare has suffered the last few years... heavier patient loads, throughout and post-pandemic, coupled with shortages in the medical fields have produced severe challenges for rural health care and specifically, rural charity care.

According to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau (2023) "Rural Oklahoma, which accounts for 34% of the state’s population, has shown a cumulative death rate of 9.6% compared to a rate of 8.78% in urban Oklahoma. Unfortunately, rural communities have also seen growing hospital closures with 128 rural hospitals in America shuttering in the last decade.

Before COVID-19, rural communities nationwide saw an average mortality rate increase of 6% following a rural hospital closure, based on data from the National Bureau of Economic Research."

For rural free clinics, a classic problem has become worse; budgets are tight, volunteers are few, new technology can be financially out of reach and needs are generally higher. This, along with other factors, has resulted in many traditional faith-based free clinics closing when they're needed the most, especially in rural areas. A new approach is needed.

As the Engage Clinic in rural Shawnee, OK prepared for our own 5th anniversary in January of 2024, we considered our own vision for the next five years for our own region. Because of other clinic closures our area of service expanded to parts of four counties, creating many new challenges. Our own medical staff has struggled in this new environment to provide the same traditional care we always have.

As we considered our next five years, we created a new free clinic model that integrates cutting edge technology in a necessary and purposeful way customized for rural free clinics. This plan has generated interest in the government and healthcare community as a way forward in rebuilding rural free healthcare.

So, in 2024 we created The ENGAGE OKLAHOMA Association to help others do what we are doing and work together to support each other. 

We've created a flexible clinic model to cover our own four county region. We have several clinic types available to be able to operate in urban or isolated areas, connecting them to be able cover any shortages in providers or pharmacy services. We also recruit Physicians from urban areas who want to serve isolated rural areas by connecting them to rural clinics via telemedicine when necessary.

We've done meticulous planning when it comes to cost. By using just a few of the medical technology upgrades combined with some common electronics, we feel we have created an effective way to connect urban resources and volunteers to rural areas with the flexibility needed to go to the areas we could not reach before without spending thousands of dollars setting up multiple clinics before we know what resources are truly needed.  And we have connected with supporters who already know what our clinic model needs financially, to help make purchasing equipment using our model affordable if not free. 

Also, we have been working with the Oklahoma State Health Department who wants to possibly make County health clinics available to groups using our model for free on evenings when they are not open. (We currently do this in Holdenville, OK on Thursday evenings)

This will change the way we practice free medicine in 2024. With our rural clinics connected, providers can spread the load, and resources can go to the most underserved areas as needed for maximum flexibility. Specialists can volunteer from anywhere statewide as needed, via telemedicine communicating with the nurse and patient, letting them see patients they were previously unable to see. Urban resources can be effectively and economically deployed to rural areas. New technology is being deployed such as electronic stethoscopes that can detect cardiac conditions in real time, allowing providers to begin better treatments faster instead of making assumptions while waiting on testing.

We are also currently in the process of locating a central pharmacy supply in Oklahoma City, staffed primarily by supervised pharmacy students completing clinical hours and will provide both supplies to free clinic pharmacies and mail order prescription services to rural free clinics, also for free. We are currently working with a foundation who supports our mission to arrange funding.

We are connecting volunteers with patients who need them. As of the Fall of 2023 we have also began a partnership with Oklahoma Baptist University Nursing School as a place for their students to get clinical training in an experienced, free clinic environment. 

With the ENGAGE OKLAHOMA association, we can have an effective way for independent rural free health care clinics to connect and work together, as well as giving rural churches or other smaller groups the tools and confidence they need to efficiently open a medical ministry in their own area. There is no cost to be a part of it

This keeps with the Original Engage Free Clinics principals of giving community volunteers a way to efficiently change lives as a group, with, supporters who want to see their support do the most that it can, as well as creating a solution when we see the need for a better way, then sharing that solution with other groups also wanting to make a difference! 

There are many ways to get involved both now and over the next year as we develop. We need prayer and some extra financial support to help set up our initial satellites as quickly as possible so we can begin serving real needs and demonstrate the model to others who are already interested. Click Here to See How You Can Make a Difference Right Now! Or, sign up for our email newsletter or text alerts to get the latest information during this incredible time in our clinic. We want to rebuild the rural free clinic network in Oklahoma and anywhere else that could use our example! I

If you would like more information about possibly getting our help with your own free clinic effort, or, you just want to see if a free clinic is right for your church or group, fill out the form below and one of our volunteer consultants will contact you!

Blessings,

Frank Kelly and Bill Sisson

Engage Oklahoma Volunteer Consultants

Engage Free Clinics, Shawnee, OK