Harris County has almost ‘no access’ to primary healthcare. This project could bridge gap
A $600,000 fundraising campaign has been launched to help create a medical clinic in Harris County and help plug the local healthcare gap.
The project is a public-private partnership among the Harris County Board of Commissioners, Harris County School District, Mercer Medicine and community leaders.
The clinic would be established in the county’s former library at 138 N. College St., a 5,500-square-foot vacant building on 1.25 acres in Hamilton, according to the memorandum of understanding,
“Harris County is severely underserved for a county of 35,000 people,” Jean Sumner, dean of the Mercer University School of Medicine, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “There is no access to quality primary care in most of the county.”
Harris County has only one primary doctor’s office offering full-time healthcare services, John Asbell, a member of the project’s steering committee, told the L-E. Depending on where they live in the county, most residents must drive 30-60 miles to Columbus or LaGrange for such care, he said.
If the necessary money is raised, Asbell said, the clinic would open in the spring of 2021.
Asbell praised the committee’s 10 months of planning, bringing together “a diverse group of people who see a need and vision-out a solution. Harris County is rich in resources in terms of people and ideas and the willingness to collaborate.”
Project details
Mercer Medicine, which has three locations in Georgia and plans to open another one in Clay County, would lease the property from the county to operate a general practice medical clinic that accepts all insured and uninsured patients, charging fees on a sliding scale. The clinic also would serve as a workers’ compensation facility and a training site for high school and medical school students.
Phase 1 of the project would start when the first $100,000 is raised. That would enable the steering committee to hire an architect and obtain the necessary permits. Phase 2 would start when the remaining $500,000 is raised, allowing a construction contractor to be hired.
If the remaining $500,000 isn’t raised within 180 days of the agreement, dated Oct. 8, “the parties shall be under no further obligations” and “Mercer Medicine shall return any unused donations to the donors” on a proportional basis, the memorandum says.
The county would use approximately $120,000 from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue to repair or replace the building’s roof and exterior HVAC equipment, Asbell said. Officials emphasized the project wouldn’t increase the county’s tax rate. Mercer Medicine would be responsible for the project’s costs beyond the Phase 2 fundraising.
Mercer Medicine would hire a physician, nurse practitioner and other staff for primary care, Sumner said. Additional services would include telehealth, X-ray, lab access and women’s health, she said. The agreement also mentions the possibility of the clinic providing pediatrics for patients after the age of 1, mental health, acute care and drug screening.
Mercer Medicine would invest as much as $1 million in the clinic for startup costs, such as equipment and first-year salaries, Asbell said.
The initial lease would be for five years and require Mercer Medicine to pay the county $500 per month the first year, increasing by $500 per month each year until reaching $2,500 in the fifth year. If the lease is renewed, the rate would be $2,500 per month plus annual inflationary allowances based on the Consumer Price Index.
HCSD would provide climate-controlled storage space and 24-hour access for the clinic’s medical records at a lease rate of $1 per year.
Expected impact
Asbell laughed at the irony of being a freshman at Mercer University in 1982 and working in the med school’s lab to get experience as he thought about becoming a doctor. He took a different career path and is Georgia Power’s local manager for external affairs, but working on this project is an opportunity to help improve the county’s healthcare and business climate at the same time, he said.
Out of Harris County’s 35,000 residents, only 1,600 work in the county, said Asbell, chairman of the Harris County Chamber of Commerce economic development committee. Healthcare is among the criteria companies use to determine where to locate their facilities.
“It’s one of the quality-of-life factors they look for,” he said.
The clinic would generate an estimated $883,000 in economic impact during its first year, Asbell said, noting patients could come from Meriwether and Talbot counties as well.
“Mercer’s mission to meet the primary care and healthcare needs of rural and underserved Georgia is really what draws us to this community,” Sumner said. “… We want to build on the strengths of the community and do not want to be one of those groups that comes in for a short time and leaves.”
Asbell called Mercer “a tremendous partner. They’ve got values that very much complement Harris County’s values in terms of caring for people and bridging needs and finding solutions.”
This project follows another local partnership expanding Mercer’s involvement in the Chattahoochee Valley. Mercer broke ground last month in downtown Columbus to expand its medical school campus here.
How to donate
For more information about this project, including how to donate, call Asbell at 706-457-4777 or another steering committee member, HCSD development director Morgan Marlowe, at 706-315-8260. Donations would be tax deductible because they would go to Mercer’s nonprofit foundation, Asbell said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 6:50 AM.
