Traverse Health Clinic and Coalition

Traverse City, Mich.

Founded in 1975, the clinic primarily serves the five-county Grand Traverse region of northwest lower Michigan.  Their patients are all below 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Ninety percent of these patients have chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and depression - thereby requiring regularly scheduled visits and usually several medications.

The clinic received $25,000 to hire a registered nurse who will conduct follow-up care. Currently, three of their nurse practitioners are responsible for all patient follow-up care which takes away time that they could be seeing patients. By hiring a full-time staff nurse, the clinic will able to increase their patient volume, increase their productivity by at least 25 percent, and decrease wait times for appointments (two weeks for established patients and six weeks for new patients).