Davidson Medical Ministries Clinic

DMMC extends a huge thank you to our friends at Belk of Lexington.  They are hosting a silent auction fundraiser for DMMC on Friday, February 26th.  Silent auction items feature a number of donations from local businesses and range in value from $15 to $300.  Also, a number of Estee Lauder makeup artists will be available  for an all day beauty event.  

Please visit Belk on the 26th between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.  For more information on the fundraiser or to make a reservation with a makeup artist, please contact Belk at 249-3126, ext. 266.

The annual United Way Campaign is underway!  This year’s campaign goal is 2 million dollars.  Funds will be raised to support 31 health and human service agencies located in Davidson County, including Davidson Medical Ministries Clinic.  For more information on the United Way of Davidson County and the campaign, please visit www.unitedwaydavidson.org.

DMMC is excited to be a part of a collaborative effort to develop a county wide plan centering on the issue of Access to Care for uninsured and underinsured residents of Davidson County.  Our Executive Director, Sandy Motley is a part of a 6 member team that is participating in the Management Academy for Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan Flagler School of Business.  The team also includes:  the Davidson County Health Director, the Davidson County Manager, the Davidson County Deputy Director of Social Services and a representative from both Lexington Memorial Hospital and Thomasville Medical Center.

The next date for new patient enrollment will be Monday, January 11, 2010.  Those interested in becoming patients should be at the Lexington clinic at 420 North Salisbury Street at 8:30 a.m.  A limited number of spaces are available, however, all persons who arrive that do not immediately receive a new patient slot will be placed on a wait list.  We will not have another new patient enrollment date until all new patients and those that are wait listed have been processed.

To be eligible for our services one must be a Davidson County resident without any health insurance, VA benefits, Medicare or Medicaid and be 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.

The days are getting shorter and cooler.  Fall is in the air…and that means one important thing to the folks in Davidson County – it’s almost Barbecue Festival time!  If you are attending the Festival this year, please consider parking in the lots at DMMC.  The lots are convenient to Uptown Lexington and the Festival and spaces are only $5.00 each.  All proceeds collected from parking will be used to fund medical, dental and pharmacy services for uninsured residents of Davidson County.  You can enjoy your day at the Barbecue Festival knowing that you’ll have a great time AND that you’ll be helping your friends and neighbors obtain the care they need.

A special thanks is extended to our fine friends at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans who will be overseeing the lots again this year and providing matching funds for monies collected.  Thank you Thrivent!  We appreciate your care and concern for the uninsured!

Davidson Medical Ministries launched a campaign for a million dollars on Friday, May 1st.  The purpose of the campaign is to raise unrestricted funds for clinic operations. 

Want to give?  Donate now on our website, mail your donation to P. O. Box 584, Lexington, NC 27293, or contact Laura at 336-249-6215 ext. 226.

Tough Economic Times Hit DMMC

At a time when more and more people in Davidson County are coming to DMMC asking for assistance with medical, dental and pharmacy services because they are uninsured, DMMC is also dealing with straining economic times.  As a matter of fact, DMMC is facing a major crisis.  With the weakened economy and high unemployment rate (9.8%), many in our community are without health insurance (23%).

 A lot of these uninsured are struggling with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, COPD and asthma.  They need our help in keeping their conditions under control.  However, right now we are struggling to keep up with the demand for services.  If you drive by the clinic on any Monday morning, you’ll see that our parking lot is overflowing with cars and potential clients are lined up out the door.  We are trying our very best to help as many people as possible, but it is impossible to help everyone who asks.

 Complicating the matter is the fact that our finances at the clinic are strapped.  For the past two years we have underspent the budget.  Despite our efforts to keep our costs to a minimum, we still finished with deficits of $330,000 in 2007 and $116,000 in 2008.  Thankfully we had enough money in our reserve to cover our short falls.  However, our reserve funds are depleted.  We cannot afford to have another deficit year. 

 We have a difficult task ahead of us.  Our board and staff are working hard to try to secure as much funding as possible.  We continue to search for grant funding and are implementing a new fund raising campaign for later on this spring.  Our board is implementing a contingency plan for clinic operations in the event of continued financial problems.  This plan would include drastic cutbacks beginning in the summer which would result in decreased services.  We would hope to never have to reduce our services at this time when our community needs us more than ever, but it is a reality that we are facing.

 Our community has always been supportive of our ministry to provide hope and healing to those who lack access to health care; for this we are truly grateful!  We are reaching out to you, yet again.  We need your help!  We need financial support, we need volunteers and we need your prayers.  Please help us in any way that you can.  If you have not made a pledge to DMMC in 2009, we ask you to consider one at this time.  If you are able to do a little more, we appreciate your generosity.  Thank you on behalf of those we serve. 

The number of people seeking assistance far exceeds the number of open slots for new patients.