ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The lobby and waiting room at Grace Medical Home is clean, nicely appointed and well-lit. In many ways, an unremarkable setting for a modern doctor’s office.
Dr. Kirsten Carter, internal medicine specialist, said that’s the point.
“We were very intentional in wanting not only a medical place of perfection and excellence, but we wanted it to be beautiful. Most of our patients have not had an opportunity to feel valued, to feel special to feel embraced,” Carter said.
The full service medical center near Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue has been serving Orange County’s uninsured residents for nearly 15 years.
“We know that there are people out there who deserve the best, who just, for whatever circumstances, can’t or don’t have access to health care, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have it. So our goal was to provide a space to fill that hole,” Carter said.
Annette Opio has relied on Grace Medical Home for several years. She has some chronic conditions and is able to get regular care from a variety of specialists within the practice.
“I get my labs done. And then I come and talk to my wonderful doctor, she tells me if I’m doing good, or if I’m getting scolded,” Opio said with a laugh.
Opio is unable to work but even when she was employed she couldn’t afford health insurance.
“I worked for many years and couldn’t afford the insurance in my own job because I had to pay other bills.” Opio said. “So a lot of people go without seeing a doctor because they can’t afford insurance.”
And those are the people Grace Medical Home is designed to help, the working poor.
“When you’re trying to choose between getting health care, and putting food on the table or paying your rent, you know, those basic needs have to be met first. And so your illness will go down on the list.” Carter said. “So you ignore things, you definitely don’t get prevention. Unfortunately, you become more and more sick, which makes you less productive. And it’s just a downward spiral.”
According to Grace Medical Home, more than 185,000 people in Orange County are uninsured and have no access to ongoing care due to insurance status and cost barriers.
Many patients work more than one part-time job. Construction work tops the list of patient occupations.
Stephanie Garris, CEO of Grace Medical Home, said most patients need care for chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and asthma.
“Our patients if they’ve sought care before, it may be episodic, maybe at a minute clinic or something like that, or the emergency room certainly. But what they really don’t have access to is that cardiologist that endocrinologist all the components that are needed with chronic disease management.” Garris said. “So that’s really what we do here. And we have all of those specialties.”
Grace Medical Home provides primary care for adults and children including well and sick visits, check-ups and care for chronic illnesses. More than 35 medical specialties, such as cardiology, dermatology and orthopedics are provided on-site.
The center relies on more than 400 physician volunteers.
Since its inception in 2010, Grace has served more than 5,000 patients and reduced patients’ ER visits totaling more than $2.4 million since 2015.
In 2010, local physicians participated in a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. The mission was to help the Dominicans turn a children’s sick clinic into a comprehensive medical home where, in addition to acute sick visits, there are well care check-ups, health education and adequate medical records.
“Returning home, they saw the same need to provide high quality and continuous healthcare to the underserved right here. So when they saw the clinic doing so successful down there, where they didn’t have many resources, they said we could probably do something like here in the U.S. And here we are,” Carter remembered. “And so it’s just amazing how it just takes one spark to ignite a big flame. All you need is a spark.”
“We were very intentional in calling ourselves Grace Medical Home,” Garris said. “Because that’s precisely what the low income uninsured struggle to find because of insurance barriers or cost barriers. And really all that means is that the patient’s in the center of their care, they come here as much as they need to. They get the secondary care, the procedures, the screenings, the cancer screenings and preventive care services that they just simply don’t have access to.”
Grace Medical Home is not currently accepting new patients but updates their website each month.
To be a patient at Grace, you must:
- ⋅ Live in Orange County for at least the past three months
- Be uninsured, not enrolled in and don’t qualify for any government-assisted healthcare programs (such as Medicaid, Medicare, VA Benefits, etc.)
- Be between the ages of birth and 64
- The monthly gross income of your family must be equal to or less than 200% of the federal poverty level.
They do not accept walk in applications.
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