BY JIM HALL
Dr. Stephen Mandell was not in the audience last month when Michelle Obama opened the new community health center in Bowling Green.
He wasn't invited.
Mandell has practiced in Bowling Green for 24 years, and he is a critic of his new neighbor.
Mandell says that the federally funded Caroline Family Practice is an expensive mistake, placed down the street from his practice, which is also federally supported.
"What they've done is put federal money side by side," he said.
Mandell said the money would have been better spent--and the poor better served--if the clinic had been located about 15 miles away in Dawn, in southern Caroline.
"That money is put out there to take care of the needs of the poor. They did not do that," he said.
The clinic opened with Mrs. Obama's help in July in a converted grocery store in the center of town.
The clinic treats all patients but specializes in the care of the poor and uninsured. It is a different mix than Mandell's practice, which is mostly insured patients.
The new clinic is staffed by a nurse practitioner. A doctor visits one day a week.
Central Virginia Health Services Inc., a nonprofit agency based in Buckingham County, operates the clinic. The agency has 14 community health centers in Virginia, including ones in Fredericksburg and Montross.
Funding for the Bowling Green center came from a grant of more than $1.6 million in stimulus money. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration supplied the money for renovations to the building and two years of operation.
Mandell said Central Virginia chose the location for the clinic with little regard for local needs. Placed in Bowling Green, it is far from those who will be using it, he said.
"If they did that down in Dawn, that would be very helpful for the public health of our county," he said.
Rod Manifold, executive director of Central Virginia, said this week that he disagrees with Mandell.
"To be successful and to serve more people for a long time, Bowling Green was clearly the site," Manifold said.
Central Virginia operated a clinic in Dawn for 1 years but closed it in 2001 when the number of patients declined. The agency merged the Dawn center with another clinic it operates in King William County, 14 miles away.
Manifold said his agency consulted with Caroline residents and government officials in 2007 before filing a grant application to return to Caroline.
He said the agency chose Bowling Green since it is the county seat and served by two major highways and the FRED bus service.
"We looked at this very carefully. We talked to a lot of people in the community," he said. "We were trying to serve the entire county."
Maxie Rozell, who represents the Dawn area on the Caroline Board of Supervisors, said he remembers telling Central Virginia officials in 2007, "We'd sure love to have you back in Dawn."
But they replied, "No, we're not interested in Dawn. We're interested in Bowling Green," he said.
Rozell said he voted to endorse the grant application because he didn't want the county to lose the money.
The location Central Virginia chose is about three blocks from Mandell's Virginia Primary Care Associates office.
Mandell settled in Bowling Green soon after completing his residency in internal medicine at the then Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
He attended medical school on a National Health Service Corps loan and opened an office in Caroline, a medically undeserved area, as payback for the loan.
Unlike many loan recipients, who move on when their obligation has ended, Mandell made Caroline his home. His practice now includes two other doctors. The group sees about 1,300 patients a month.
Because of its location in a rural area, the group receives a higher Medicare reimbursement.
About 65 percent of Mandell's patients are Medicare recipients and 10 percent are Medicaid recipients.
The higher reimbursements are "a way of helping to sustain those clinics," he said.
Mandell said he is not worried about competition from the new clinic. He said he has longstanding relationships with many of his patients and is now treating their children and grandchildren.
"Patients don't leave a practice for one with just a nurse practitioner and a once-a-week doctor," he said.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
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Maxie Rozell, who represents the Dawn area on the Caroline Board of Supervisors, said he hasn't given up hope of locating medical services there. Rozell said this week that he has spoken with doctors who are interested in the area "We need some help trying to find a place," he said. "This community has been overlooked." Dawn is a rural area near the intersection of U.S. 301 and State Route 30. |