Clinic offers primary care

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Jul 8, 2009 - Page: 1B

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GONZALES -- Chrissy Chauvin, 25, said she suffers from painful earaches every three to six months and has had to wait hours in emergency rooms to get the necessary antibiotics.

The mother of a 5-month-old said she has been without health insurance for five years and has been out of a job until recently to care for her infant.

Chauvin said she could not afford the primary care offered at the doctor’s office and had to go to the emergency room when the earaches became too painful.

But Ascension Parish government and St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales have joined to help the uninsured and underinsured in predicaments similar to Chauvin’s.

After more than two years of work, the hospital and parish government have opened the St. Elizabeth Community Clinic, a health clinic inside the parish health unit building in Gonzales, parish and hospital officials said.

The clinic’s aim is to provide acute and chronic primary care to those in need, alleviate pressure on St. Elizabeth’s emergency room and provide more cost-effective care with better long-term outcomes for patients.

Chauvin said she has been to the clinic three times already.

“It’s really nice to have a place to go,” said Chauvin, who lives in Livingston but now works in Ascension Parish as a restaurant hostess.

The new clinic opened April 29 without broad public notice and has served about 350 people, said Kristin Martin, one of two nurse practitioners at the clinic.

The clinic handles many of the acute and chronic care needs for which someone would go to the doctor’s office — colds and coughs, or diabetes and high blood pressure checkups, Martin said. 

On Tuesday evening, parish government, city of Gonzales and hospital officials witnessed the blessing and dedication of the new clinic by Father Gary Belsome, pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church in Gonzales.

“People really don’t realize how many unfortunate families that we do have in this parish,” Parish President Tommy Martinez told the gathering.

“You ride around here. You see all the growth. You see all the big buildings, the new buildings coming up, but we do have certain percentage of our population that needs something like this,” he said.