Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio
Grant Amount: $25,000

Established in 1969, the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland (“The Free Clinic”) is one of the oldest free clinics in the U.S. and the largest in Ohio. Currently, they have 57 full and part-time staff and approximately 300 medical and lay volunteers. There is no charge or sliding scale fee for any of their services; the primary qualifying criteria is lack of health insurance. Last year, The Free Clinic provided more than 40,000 services to over 11,000 individuals.

Their patients are predominately minority (75 percent), living in poverty (97 percent at or below federal poverty level), and have no insurance of any kind (93 percent). Only 58 percent of their patients are unemployed.

The Free Clinic will receive a $25,000 grant to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate, free medical and dental care to immigrants and other minority groups. They will establish specialty clinics for these targeted populations, possibly on weekends and by adjusting their hours of operation, and recruit more volunteers with specialized language skills through the Case Western Reserve University Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine and local chapters of the AMA and American Dental Association. Half of the project costs will be covered by the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation of Cleveland, while grant funds from the AMA Foundation will be used specifically for items such as salary, pharmaceuticals, and program supplies.