Cathy Sandhage, a Jackson County native who spent a portion of the mid-1980s working for the Peace Corps in Belize, said she’s been brushing up on her Spanish skills in recent weeks in preparation for the clinic’s opening
Bilingual employees will help new clinic
By MELINDA KNOX
mknox@tribtown.com
With a partnership based on language and a desire to help all Jackson County residents with access to health care, two area residents are preparing for the Monday opening of the Jackson County Community Health Center.
Cathy Sandhage and David Morante, a nurse and an intake specialist, respectively, both speak Spanish and will be instrumental in the health center’s approach to helping Jackson County’s Latino community navigate the health care system through the new clinic.
Morante, a native of Ecuador who has worked as a pastor at First Seymour Church of the Nazarene for several years, will be one of the first people to greet patients as they come through the doors and will take patients’ medical histories, as well as help them with their financial records. That’s where his Spanish skills come in. When a Spanish-speaking patient comes in for treatment, he said, he’ll be able to translate and speak to them in their native language, a tool useful when medical forms need to be filled in correctly.
This isn’t Morante’s first foray into the medical field as a translator. For many years, he said, he has helped members of the Latino community when they needed to see a doctor by translating. Now it’s his profession.
“This is a good place for the community,” he said, “American or Hispanic.”
With Morante on the “front end” of the clinic assisting patients, Sandhage, a Jackson County native who spent a portion of the mid-1980s working for the Peace Corps in Belize, said she’s been brushing up on her Spanish skills in recent weeks in preparation for the clinic’s opening. She’ll be on the “back end,” she said, helping translate when doctors see Latino patients while performing her nursing duties.
“They wanted someone in the front and someone in the back” she said, adding that health center organizers anticipate that many of the center’s patients will be Spanish-speaking. “This is a team effort, no doubt.”
The two are now helping the rest of the clinic staff, which includes Dr. Kenneth Bobb and Dr. Rosemary Weir, who will each continue to practice at other locations, to ready the building at 600 S. Jackson Park Drive, for the opening. An open house with tours for the community will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, and refreshments will be served. Sandhage said the preparations are going well and several appointments have already been made.
“It’s been a lot of work with everyone pitching in,” she said. “We’re going to be ready on Monday.”
Those who would like to make an appointment may call 524-8388. The clinic will accept all patients regardless of income or insurance status and will also accept most private insurance and all Medicaid plans and Medicare. For uninsured services, clients may apply for a fee discount based on family size and income.
