Merry Christmas!

Greetings from the Morehouses!

We deeply appreciate all your support and look forward
to serving together with you in the coming year.

Click here to read our holiday letter.

New Vision in 2010

As 2009 comes to a close, we’re anticipating the new plans the Lord has for us to fulfill. This past summer, in response to the growing need at His Branches, we pulled together a development committee that includes Board members, some staff, and others willing to donate their time. We recognize the urgency to establish ourselves on a solid financial base with community support to keep our doors open during these times of deep economic stress. Meeting monthly, the Lord has blessed us with expanded opportunities and relationships with individuals and with local community action groups who can help.

In July we met with the Ad Council of Rochester to “write our vision on a tablet” (Habakkuk 2:2-3) and clarify what we’re called to do. The Strategic Round Table met for 3 hours to generate ideas and identify the challenges we face. With the help of 10 marketing professionals who volunteered their time, we prioritized a lot of great ideas. We learned the importance of website optimization, how to tailor our message, and how to recruit administrative staff that can help us reach our goals. We all came away energized and encouraged. Our upcoming fund raising banquet on May 13th is one of the ideas we are moving on. More to come on that!

Our heart is to reach the people of Rochester for Christ by shining His Love openly through medical and crisis pregnancy care. There are a few groups that are talking with us about opening other crisis pregnancy offices similar to or in conjunction with Embracing Options. We would like to expand in our support of these groups. The spiritual hunger and physical needs are obvious but our resources are limited. Please help us to continue this work of mercy in our community.

Click here to read the December print version of The Grapevine.

Arnett Block Association

Several years ago, in response to concerns voiced by neighbors on Arnett Boulevard, Dr. Morehouse’s wife, Susan, gathered a group and started the Arnett Block Association. We’ve been meeting once a month ever since then with neighbors, police officers, building inspectors, and landlords, working to reduce the crime, drug dealing, and gang violence in our area, closing each meeting with prayer. The group has spearheaded several positive community projects, including hosting a Bible Club and Block Party in our parking lot every year. This year we’ve arranged to have Rochester Community Bikes hold a Bike Clinic where 15 bikes and helmets will be given away and kids will be helped and taught how to fix their broken bikes. We’ve renovated the Arnett Library foyer with donated supplies and an artistic mural done by Richmond Futch. And, with the city’s help, we’ve also planted a large perennial garden at the corner of Arnett and Wellington called the Arnett Bird and Butterfly Garden. It was just beautiful this year!

EO and Grace Family Medicine

Dr. Morehouse with mom and new arrival!

      

Many of you know that Sandi and others at Embracing Options are busy quietly meeting with young women in crisis (over 200 this year), offering pregnancy tests, counseling regarding abstinence and STDs, and helping the girls find pro-life solutions to their dilemmas. These are complex problems in lives that are mixed up and sometimes appear hopeless. Many come to Christ as the gospel is shared and their lives turn around. What you may not be aware of is that often these girls find a safe place for prenatal care at Grace Family Medicine where Dr. Morehouse goes on to deliver their rescued babies. The young women continue to bring their new children for care at our office. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to continue the care and discipling that was begun upstairs at Embracing Options. What an amazing collaborative effort in His Kingdom! Isn’t God good? We need your help to keep this effort going!

Our Great Team at GFM!

Stop in at Grace Family Medicine and meet our new staff members, medical secretaries Michelle and Crystal. We’re so glad to have them join us, bringing cheerful faces and new talents to our team. Dr. Matthew Mack is a very welcome addition, taking on new patients and urgent care needs. We are so pleased to have such a hard working front office team, training on the job while meeting the growing needs of our providers and patients. They work so well in collaboration with our nurses and billing staff.

Our nurses, Mindy and Linda, and our providers, Dr. Morehouse, Dr. Mack, and Jen Celso strive to work in unity as they provide the comprehensive care our patients so genuinely need. Prayer is a regular and vital component, both as a staff and with patients. Our dedicated nurses and providers often work through their lunch hour and after hours to bring excellent care to a needy population. We are grateful for the growing harmony of vision, dedication to serve, and sacrifice these people display daily.

With the complexity of medical billing, we’ve brought on a lovely lady, Gloria, who is doing a fantastic job with our billing in house. She is carefully sorting through insurance paper work and billing claims as they get rejected and have to be resubmitted.

Bill Waldert and Sarah Love are working hard on the many administrative details it takes to keep His Branches going: problem solving, planning staff meetings, backing up the staff, and simply being there when things get hectic.

Sliding Fee Scale

Due to rising costs and loss of employment, more and more of our patients are using our Sliding Fee Scale, which bases the cost of their visit on their income, to pay for appointments. In addition, many patients come to us with Medicaid to pay for their visit. After submitting claims to Medicaid and applying our sliding fee scale, we’re paid significantly less than our usual “fee for service” charges. With the increase in patients that are uninsured or on Medicaid we’re finding that we can’t keep up with our overhead costs of staffing, building, vaccines, malpractice insurance, etc.

Many of our patients are on several medications, which they must pay for out of pocket. In the past, drug representatives have given us samples to help them out. Recently, the sample donations are dwindling, leaving us no avenue to help these patients. There are many health care needs in this community. We need your help in filling the gap between what the patients and insurers can provide and what it actually costs us to provide that care. Please help us keep our doors open to the uninsured and underinsured!

We’re still accepting new patients! Please call one of our offices for more details!
Grace Family Medicine   585-235-2250

Joy Family Medicine   585-697-0004

Health reform hits reality

POST, TX - Another morning at the clinic. Far away in Washington, the debate over health-care reform drags on, while here in barren West Texas, Ben Edwards is moving fast. He grabs the chart for his next patient, his ninth of the day, and enters Exam Room 5, where Alma Lopez, 51, waits to see the only doctor in town...

"I'm always behind," Edwards says, summing up what it's like to be the only doctor within a 45-mile radius, and in that simple statement is his worry about what reform will mean:

What will happen in a place like Post, where the uninsured are waiting for a system to see a doctor regularly - and there's only one doctor to see them all?

If all of Post's 3,708 residents had full health coverage, Edwards believes they would flock to his clinic, but his practice is already full with more than 2,000 patients. He has no idea how he would fit in anyone else.

In this working-class outpost in this vast, flat no man's land, the everyday health-care needs of an entire community fall to Edwards. Health-care reform is on its way, and it is up to him to care for everything - every sniffle, ear ache and fever, every anxiety and sleepless night, every bad back and stomach pain and bladder infection.

And the truth is this: Edwards will not have time to treat them all.

Click here to read the full article in yesterday's Washington Post.

Swine Flu (H1N1) Shots

The Monroe County Health Department held public swine flu clinics in November while waiting for enough vaccine to come in for other sites. Most of our patients at Grace Family Medicine and Joy Family Medicine did not find this to be a very accessible route for the vaccine, so our offices have been flooded with phone calls and questions about it. We received two shipments in mid and late November (with no promise of more) and have been inoculating those for whom it is recommended (pregnant women, children 6 months old and up, people who care for children or who are in health-related fields, and adults who have chronic health conditions or compromised immune systems). We’ve been busy!

Click here to read a Fact Sheet about the swine flu.

19th Ward Activities

The 19th Ward Community Association was established in 1965 to promote the quality of life and character of the 19th Ward Neighborhood. Our motto is "Urban by Choice" and our mission is "To create a conscious multi-racial community where individual and cultural differences are celebrated and where people share a sense of community."

An all-volunteer, member-supported organization, the Association advocates for its residents with local government and organizations on community, crime, and public safety issues. It also hosts special and social events including:

• Martin Luther King Luminary Evening (January)
• Community Candlelight Dinners (February)
• Citizen & Merchant of the Year Awards (May)
• Square Fair & Parade, Garden Tours (June)
• Neighborhood Potluck Picnics (Summers)
• House Tours (October)
• Annual Convention (November)

Officers for the coming year were just elected at last month's Convention and two of these annual events, the MLK Luminary Evening and Candlelight Dinners are coming up. See associated articles below.

19th Ward Luminaries

For the past few years the 19th Ward has celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday in a public manner and will be doing so again this year.

On Monday, January 18 there will be luminaries throughout the area. The luminaries themselves are small paper bags weighted down with sand or kitty litter and containing a votive candle. Luminary kits are available at Hunt’s Hardware, and Tops Market will have kits for sale on Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11.

Neighbors make a number of luminaries and set them at the sidewalk edge of their tree lawn from sunset until 9 pm. Some people host warming fires and a hot chocolate stands. This is also a community building event.

Please call the 19th Ward Community Association’s office 328-6571 with any questions.

Candlelight Dinners

Join us for this enjoyable 19th Ward winter event on February 22nd by either hosting a dinner or by attending as guest. This is a pot luck event, so pull out your favorite recipes. The host will coordinate the dinner and notify guests of time and what to bring. The guest will attend, meet new neighbors, and enjoy a social evening in the 19th Ward. If you have a new neighbor be sure to pass on the invitation. Call the Association office at 328-6571 and leave a message if you are hosting or guesting and how many adult guests you can fit around your table or how many adult guests will attend from your household. Cut off date is February 7.

If you would like to coordinate a special dinner - families with children, special dietary needs, etc. - please notify the office. We have been unable to do this in the past but would certainly do so if we have a volunteer. And, if you would like to volunteer as chairperson of the annual dinners, please call Adrienne Kllc, 328-6531: you will get on-the-job training!