Two community health care providers -- the Community Health Care Clinic and Community Cancer Center -- both saw an increase in business last year and expect that to continue in 2010.
The Normal-based Community Health Care Clinic, which provides services to McLean County's uninsured and underinsured, experienced a 44 percent increase in services in 2009 and the rise in demand has continued this year, said clinic Executive Director Shirley Drazewski and Operations Manager Mike Romagnoli.
The clinic was able to meet that increase with the "continued cooperation from hospitals and physicians" and by "getting the most out of the staff at the clinic," said Romagnoli.
About 2,000 applications for clinic services were picked up last year and 468 people returned completed applications and were approved as new patients, Romagnoli said. The clinic has more than 3,000 patients overall.
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The clinic is serving more unemployed patients than before, and Romagnoli expects an increase this year, as more people's unemployment and COBRA benefits run out.
Romagnoli said the clinic is also seeing more part-time workers who do not have health insurance benefits.
"I'm not sure how much more we can do," said Romagnoli. "We are definitely busy."
Even though the clinic receives no state money, cuts in state funding to other local social service agencies also meant an increase in demand for the clinic, which now serves patients who formerly received services from those organizations.
Further state cuts could affect the clinic in other ways.
The clinic relies on other organizations for things like medical supplies, and if they can't provide them, Romagnoli said the clinic looks for alternative funding sources. "It makes us more creative," he said.
Community Cancer Center
The Community Cancer Center, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009, also continues to see an increase in patients each year.
"Fewer people are leaving town to get services that we provide here," said Barb Nathan, the center's executive director.
When it first opened, the Normal facility was treating about 600 people annually, and now that number is more than 1,000.
Nathan estimates about 220 patients come to the cancer center each day for a variety of treatments, classes and consultations.
One reason patients no longer need to seek services elsewhere is the center strives to be on the leading edge of treatments.
Last year, the center was accepted into a national study to determine whether high-dose radiation treatments over a short time are as effective at fighting prostate cancer, but with fewer side effects, as longer-term conventional radiation treatments.
The center also continues to be a leader when it comes to early diagnosis of breast cancer. After a study last year showed that McLean County's mammogram rates are lower than the national average, the center started an initiative, Pink Partners, to encourage women 40 and older to pledge to each other to get a mammogram each year.
Because of its continued growth, the center also continues to plan for expansion. "Our board of directors adopted a master plan for facility expansion and now will be developing architectural designs for meeting increased space needs," Nathan said.
