Marram Health Center opened its doors to the community during an open house and ceremonial ribbon cutting today. The health center has taken over the former private practice of Dr. Frank Quint, MD and will offer services to cover any medical need regardless of patients' ability to pay. The federally qualified clinic will offer family practice, pediatrics, psychiatry, medication assisted treatment, and behavioral health therapies.
CEO of both Porter-Starke Services and Marram Health Center, Matthew Burden, saw the importance of keeping a healthcare facility in the rural south Porter County area of Hebron, giving residents the peace of mind of having a medical facility close to home.
“One of the things that we and the Quint’s wanted was to make sure that there were still medical services provided at this location,” said Burden. “It’s a relatively rural location, and there can be issues with access to care for some people, so we wanted to make sure to not only keep this clinic going, but expand services as well.”
One exciting initiative that Marram Health Center is taking is signing a new contract with surrounding schools. Marram will bring in behavioral health specialists to work individually with kids and alongside school staff to identify issues and provide kids with a quite route to treatment.
Aileen Wehren, vice president of systems administration at Marram Health Center, talked about the importance of providing availability to high quality healthcare to the public. With high quality healthcare that patients have access to whether or not they have insurance, the chances of recovering quickly from acute illnesses goes way up.
“We do some things that aren’t common in primary care,” said Wehren. “We assist people with ensuring that they get connected to other services they need, we help them make sure that they get prescriptions filled as cost-effectively as possible, and we’ll do outreaches in the community to give back.”
Those uncommon practices, are many of the reasons Mindy Krsak, CPNP-PC, Shawna Reed, FNP, PMHNP, Amanda Dech, FNP, and Beth Aguayo, LCSW, LCAC, are excited to bring this practice to the community.
“I love being able to see the children grow from the time they’re newborns all the way up to eighteen,” said Krsak. “I love being able to watch them grow, develop, prosper, and become good citizens of the community.”
“We provide holistic care to the entire community from birth to seniors,” said Dech. “And we’re able to cover every aspect of it, especially with preventative care.”
“I call it catching those that wouldn’t otherwise be caught, because sometimes they don’t know ahead of time that we even have an integrated care approach,” said Aguayo. “So people who aren’t addressing some of their mental health issues get a little window of opportunity to get a first look on how we can help with those kind of things.”
“I lived many years without health insurance, so it means a lot to me to work for a clinic where you won’t be turned away based on your ability to pay,” said Reed. “We try to work together as a team so patients get all of their needs met, not just the medical. We do a lot more than just medicine.”
For more information about Marram Health Center, visit www.marramhealth.org.
