A little help from their friends: San Francisco Free Clinic cares for the uninsured

A physician couple, and a host of colleague volunteers, provide medical care, treating patients with respect.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Dec. 17, 2001.

Community Spirit
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At the San Francisco Free Clinic, the philosophy is really quite simple.

"We ask just a little bit from a lot of doctors," said Richard Gibbs, MD, family physician and president of the clinic that serves the uninsured in the Bay Area.

Doctors are asked to give as little as 10 minutes of their time a month to the clinic, 20 minutes if they can spare it. These physicians number about 150, including 85 specialists who open their offices for free to patients referred by the clinic, area doctors who are paid for their efforts and volunteer retired practitioners.

One hospital may donate an MRI for a clinic patient while another offers a free ultrasound.

By taking these individual charitable acts from the medical community, the clinic has knitted a network that gives free primary care medicine to about 5,000 people each year.

"The San Francisco Free Clinic is like a community treasure -- it's held in very high regard," said Mary Lou Licwinko, executive director of the San Francisco Medical Society.

On the surface, there isn't much that makes the Victorian-style building stand out from the others on California Street in San Francisco's Richmond neighborhood.

But once you walk inside, it feels more like a home than a clinic.

Notice the artwork crafted by patients as a sign of gratitude for the medical care they received. Admire the stained glass window of the Bay Area created by a carpenter whose children were treated at the clinic.

"It's a medical oasis for these people," said John Fullerton, MD, an internist and geriatrician who has worked at the clinic for two years. [...]