'Thank God there was a door'

Clinica Tepeyac gives much needed medical care to Denver area's poor and uninsured

By Hector Gutierrez
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

No health insurance, no problem.

For $5 a visit at La Clinica Tepeyac in northwest Denver, which is all some of the area's working poor can afford for health care, patients get treated with kid gloves.

The handful of dollars and the thank yous or gracias accompanied by beaming smiles are all that health clinic volunteer Annette Hultin and part-time family nurse practitioner Joni King can ask for.

"It's very rewarding," said King, 44, who commutes from Louisville to the Denver clinic three days a week to treat patients.

"The patients are probably some of the most appreciative I've ever worked with," King said. "Basically, they have no insurance and there's not a whole lot of people they can see. Most of them speak Spanish and they don't understand the health care system in the area."

Before Clinica Tepeyac opened in 1995 across from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, the parish's social concerns committee met with residents to discuss some of the community's most urgent needs. At the time, the church was led by the former Rev. Marshall Gourley, a controversial activist Catholic priest.

"And the community said, 'We need a clinic,' and Marshall Gourley listened," Gallo recalled.

Next to the rectory and parish offices, the church owned a dilapidated little building. Parishioners and volunteers decided to renovate the structure, which cost about $100,000, and convert it into Clinica Tepeyac.

Now, the clinic provides primary medical care for uninsured adults and their children. For emergencies, the clinic's staff helps refer the needy to hospitals or health care facilities that are willing to accept them for urgent treatment.

The health clinic relies primarily on individual donations, churches, foundations, fund-raisers and federal grants to operate, said Susan Gallo, the facility's clinic's executive director.

Most of the support comes from volunteers and part-time staff, and physicians and nurses. Some of their work involves health education and outreach services.

A large part of their program includes nutritional and preventative health care, Gallo said. Doctors and nurses spend most of their time performing breast exams and cervical screening, and administering vaccinations to patients.

The clinic's caretakers said many of their clients are impoverished Latino families, many with a history of chronic diabetes and high blood pressure.

Maria Elena Ramos, 61, fits the typical patient profile.

"I have diabetes, high blood pressure and my right arm has been bothering me a lot," Ramos said. "And I even have arthritis."

Ramos said she had been to another clinic, but the cost of medicine was simply too much. She said her body was going through agony until she saw a television commercial about Clinica Teyeyac. The trip from her Aurora home to northwest Denver is long, but Ramos said it was a matter of life.

"Thank God there was a door I knocked on and it opened," Ramos said.

Sometimes, the staff encounters families where the father is disabled and the mother can't work because she takes care of the couple's children, Gallo said. Sometimes, the $5 fee is too much. The doctors and nurses will let the fee slide but they usually can count on getting paid later.

The facility is open Monday through Saturday. However, appointments are accepted only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

"The spirit for caring down there is really strong," said Hultin, who has been a volunteer nurse practioner at the clinic for the past two years. "It's a challenging patient population. It's also so rewarding. It's more rewarding than anything."

December 12, 2000