DARKE COUNTY — Family Health has been serving Darke County residents for over 40 years. Recently, they expanded their health care services and extended their hours to include an after hours clinic.
The extended hours are an effort to provide health care for illness and injuries that aren’t serious enough to require a trip to the emergency room, and the clinic is open to everyone, regardless of whether they are clients of Family Health.
“No one will be turned away,” said Tracey Luce, Family Health employee of the after hours clinic.
Luce stressed that one of their goals is to help patients who do not have a family doctor. A patient without a family doctor can be seen in the after hours clinic and the clinic will refer them to a doctor on Family Health’s staff that is able to see them on a regular basis, said Luce.
The clinic is equipped to treat patients with mild illnesses, colds, flu, minor lacerations, and soon we’ll be able to deal with minor fractures, said Jean Young, the Interim Executive Director of Family Health.
After-hours providers are Dr. Robert Kensinger and Lyn Livingston and two nurse practitioners.
“We’re trying to be that safety net; you get back from work, and you or your child is sick, we can treat minor illnesses when other places, like your family physician, have closed,” explained Young. “After our treatment, we’ll fax all the information of what we’ve done to the family physician, so they know what’s happened. We’re open to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, and we accept most insurances.”
The clinic opened on Monday, and the response has been slowly growing.
“We had seven people, total, on Monday,” said Young. “In the first hour of Tuesday, we had nine people.”
The clinic is held at the Family Health Facility at 5735 Meeker Road in Greenville, and takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The doors are locked at 9 p.m., but everyone who is present will be treated, said Young. For more information about the clinic, call Family Health at (937) 548-9680.
