“Why haven’t I been helping these people find adequate health care?”
Dr. Jack McConnell murmured the question, almost out loud to himself. It was a question that posed itself with almost irritating frequency. Every time he left his more-than-comfortable home in the gated Hilton Head Plantation community by way of the back entrance, he was confronted with fellow islanders living in relative poverty. He at first had asked where they received their health care. The answer, he knew now, was in the emergency room or nowhere.
The Vision
In January 1992, convinced that he had a unique plan to provide free health care to those who couldn’t afford it, McConnell met with a group of retired physicians in a Hilton Head Regional Medical Center conference room. He described his vision: retired doctors, nurses, dentists, and other professionals would be the volunteer staff providing free care to medically underserved people in a clinic built specifically for that purpose. At the conclusion of his meeting, sixteen retired physicians agreed to work in his clinic if he could get it off the ground. Armed with that commitment, Jack set about the business of creating a clinic to meet the health care needs of poor families living and working on Hilton Head Island.
Licensure Requirements Waived
Obtaining South Carolina licenses for retired physicians from other states and finding a way to pay for malpractice insurance were two major hurdles to overcome. A bill to waive licensure fees and provide for Special Purpose Examination Tests was defeated by the South Carolina General Assembly. Undaunted, Dr. McConnell successfully sought assistance from the South Carolina Medical and Hospital Associations and from Representative Billy Houck. In May of 1992, an amendment for waiver of fees and the SPEX test was submitted to the General Assembly and passed. In July of that year, Governor Carroll Campbell signed the bill into law, and in so doing, directed the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners to create a special volunteer license.
Insurance Coverage
Simultaneously, McConnell approached the Joint Underwriters Association to provide malpractice insurance coverage. After extensive correspondence with the South Carolina Legislature, the Association became convinced that the state’s Good Samaritan Law, which places a cap of $200,000 on any malpractice awards that might result from free care given by a physician in an emergency, extended to the free care to be provided at the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic. In July, the Joint Underwriters Association offered malpractice insurance to the clinic, enabling physicians volunteering their services on clinic premises to do so unencumbered with expensive, individual malpractice coverage. (To this day, the clinic has NEVER had to use that coverage!)
February 1993
By February of 1993, 55 physicians, 68 nurses, 7 dentists, 2 chiropractors, 2 social workers, 2 dental assistants, 2 medical technicians and over 100 lay persons had volunteered to participate. the Town of Hilton Head agreed to lease a 1.1 acre building site, charging the clinic one dollar per year.
Free Immunization
While the actual clinic building was being constructed with donated funds, McConnell had set up a temporary facility in space donated by the hospital, and in June of 1993, free immunization clinics began running two afternoons a week. By year’s end the part-time clinic had immunized nearly 1,000 island children.
Ten Years Old in 2004
The Clinic celebrated its tenth birthday in 2004 – ten years of providing free medical, dental, eye care and mental health services to more than 38,000 individuals, with patient visits totaling more than 120,000. Currently there are 13,000 individuals who are employed by over 2,000 businesses in our community who are medically underserved. The number of patients in need continues to grow. Because of VIM’s uniqueness, operating on donated time of 200 retired medical professionals and 220 lay volunteers, quality care is being provided to those who need it most.
Role Model for Other Clinics
The relentless efforts of Dr. Jack McConnell have provided the opportunity for Hilton Head Island to significantly alter its character by offering, to rich and poor alike, adequate access to health care. Today, through the help of the Volunteers in Medicine Institute, there are 29 operating VIM clinics in the United States, and many more in the planning stages.
Our Vision Statement:
May we have eyes to see those rendered invisible and excluded, Open arms and hearts to reach out and include them, Healing hands to touch their lives with love, And in the process heal ourselves.
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