By MATT PIKE
The Stuber Health Center, located in the downtown St. Joseph Patee Market, has received a $20,000 grant from the Schmidt Foundation, which will help aid in its mission to reach more patients.
Stuber, formerly known as the Social Welfare Board of Buchanan County, has been around since 1913, the oldest free and charitable clinic in the country. Stuber provides healthcare services, such as medical, dental services, women's health services, and also immigration physicals.
Executive Director Dr. Latha Varghese says the dental and medical clinics at Stuber focus solely on lower income families and individuals in Buchanan County.
"Like less than 200% federal income poverty level, and we take any insurances, regardless except for Medicare," Varghese tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "As you know many patients struggle with health, and especially when they are living in poverty, they put healthcare in the backburner, and usually they come to see when it is having chronic problems and stuff, so we are here to help them with the prevention as well as treatment of their medical conditions."
Varghese says the need for this service is crucial, with around nine percent of patients being uninsured, and Stuber is there to help provide services to those who might be uninsured at low cost to cost.
Though providing great services to those in need, many still have not heard of the Stuber Health Center, or know where it is. Varghese says the biggest help thus far has been word of mouth from patients.
"So just in the last year we have focused more on marketing to spread the word out, not only for the patients to come here, but also for donors and stuff to know about the services we provide and to help us support," Varghese explains.
And to help in those efforts, Varghese calls the grant from the Schmidt Foundation timely, in helping to promote the word more about Stuber Health Center and overcoming the challenges they have faced.
But now with the grant money, Varghese says it will definitely help in the center's goals to reach out to more people.
"Our goal is to reach out, not just here in the downtown area in the Patee Hall, and the surrounding area, but also outside of this area," Varghese says.
And having the money to be able to focus on promotion, Varghese says, gives Stuber the ability to use other money elsewhere to enhance clinic services.
"For example, some of our patients we do have a dispensary, and we offer free medications for those who are uninsured, and we can purchase more medications, and we also help with transportation," Varghese says. "Getting them with the birth certificates and stuff and other needs for the patients and stuff, and other needs for the patients, we can definitely use them there."
Stuber Health Center also has a lab that having the extra money will help purchase lab supplies to be able to do more effective work in drawing and processing blood that is sent to Mosaic.
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