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Wellness center set to open to music and speeches

By Meg Olson

“Our theme is ‘from vision to reality’,” said Pioneer group president Brian Canfield. “We came up with that theme because there were a lot of people with this vision working together and now it’s become a reality.’

On June 6, with music, speeches and ribbon-cutting, the Point Roberts Aydon Wellness Clinic will be open, almost ten years after planning for it started.

The road to the opening started in 1994 when Ron Nielson became the first president of the newly formed non-profit corporation Point Roberts Pioneer Project. Before the group even knew what services would eventually be offered, Ed Aydon started raising funds by collecting thousands of aluminum cans for almost a decade and raised thousands of dollars. Further fundraising efforts built the group’s bank balance to almost enough to build a facility but not to start a medical service. “It wasn’t until we had the support of the state department of health that things took shape,” Canfield said. “It was they who suggested we partner with Interfaith. That made it work in scale and scope.”

The Pioneer Project teamed up with the Interfaith Community Health Center (ICHC) in Bellingham and the Point Roberts fire department, developing a model for a clinic in a remote area that earned them a $200,000 federal grant, renewable for three years. The health center was brought on board to manage the clinic operation, staff and billing, drawing from its existing operation in Bellingham.

Nurse practitioner Virginia Lester will meet the community she will be caring for at the June 6 event. “We’ll ask people to give us a synopsis of their needs and wants,” she said. “We want to encourage people to come in and be flexible with them.”

Interfaith director Glen Gelhar said Lester and her husband Ed were a perfect match for the Point. “When I first came up here with the department of health I was thinking about Virginia and their boat was literally tied to the dock at the marina. This was destiny,” he said.

Lester has been a nurse practitioner for 23 years, providing the same care as a family doctor, from prescriptions to referrals to a specialist. “We’re looking at all primary care,” she said. She and her husband live on a boat and are taking up residence in the Point Roberts Marina. Ed, a retired chemist, will run the clinic’s laboratory. “This is more extensive than your normal primary care,” Gelhar said. “It’s the latest technology used in remote sites.”

Through Interfaith’s participation in a federal prescription drug program the clinic will also have a small pharmacy. “Virginia will be able to offer medications at our cost which is a little better than sending patients to Canada,” Gelhar said.

The clinic will especially focus on monitoring and caring for people with chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, Gelhar said. “The idea is to deal with chronic disease aggressively, get people signed on and get to know them,” he said. A valuable tool is being donated by St. Joseph’s Hospital ­ monitoring software and a connection to the hospital’s Hynet record system. It ties together information from all medical offices in the county, so a Bellingham specialist can monitor their Point Roberts patient without a trip to Bellingham. “This is one of the instances where the hospital is really stepping up,” Gelhar said.

A pediatric dental checkup van will attend the June 6 opening, which Gelhar said should be the first in a series of special services coordinated by Interfaith. “There is provision in the funding to bring up specialists,” Gelhar said. “Depending on needs we’re going to work with mental health professionals,” Lester added.

Lester will start seeing patients on June 10 and the clinic will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. “We’re working on something new ­ open scheduling and same-day scheduling,” Lester said. Outside those hours patients have access to a toll-free 24-hour telephone consultation through Harborview Medical Center. “They will also have the opportunity to call me,” Lester added.

The June 6 opening will start at 10:30 a.m. with music from the Point Roberts primary school choir. There will be speeches and tours of the new facility; refreshments will be provided.

The community van has been reserved to bring guests to the event. To get a ride, call 945-2844 and leave your address, the number of passengers to be picked up and a phone number. You will be contacted with a pickup time.

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