State Employees Credit Union Foundation recently made a $750,000 donation to Surry Medical Ministries to help the agency with its new on Rockford Street clinic, the SECU Health Resource Center.
“(This) is good news for residents in Northwest North Carolina with little or no access to primary healthcare,” officials with the credit union said. “The opening of the center’s fully equipped medical office, inclusive of an ambulatory surgical center, will enable the non-profit to increase its capacity for the underserved by 20% in the first year, assisting an additional 600 to 800 eligible individuals in Surry, Alleghany, Wilkes, Stokes, and Yadkin counties.”
“The impact of this project will be significant for many North Carolinians, including the more than 62,000 SECU members who reside in this area,” said Damian Carter, the credit union”s regional senior vice president. “The expanded capacity and access to Surry Medical Ministries’ services will help create a deeper connection within communities that will result in positive health and economic benefits for the people of this region. We are pleased to support their important work.”
The non-profit medical agency began as a small acute-care no-cost medical clinic in 1993 and has grown its healthcare services to accommodate more than 5,000 patient appointments since 2021. Surry Medical Ministries provides a wide range of healthcare services, telehealth visits to local farm workers, and is the primary care physician for a local women’s homeless shelter, two transitional care homes, and the direct healthcare provider for two former foundation grantees, The Shepherd’s House and The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina.
“Our new larger capacity Surry Medical Ministries SECU Health Resource Center, designed for low-income patients, has already begun to pay dividends for our entire region in the first seven months since opening,” said Nancy Dixon, the medical ministries’ executive director and board president. “But most importantly, this clinic embodies the mission of SECU Foundation. Whether it is $1 at a time or one person helping another person, this clinic is creating a healthier more connected community. And our businesses cannot remain healthy and survive in communities without healthy people. This partnership between SECU Foundation and Surry Medical Ministries is a win-win for everyone. This is how good change happens.”
Surry Medical Ministries moved to its new location in August, after purchasing the building formerly used as a practice by Dr. Glenn Pfitzner, who retired last year, for $2.7 million. The ministry secured money from the purchase from the USDA, with $500,000 of the money a grant, the rest of the funding the form of a $2.2 million, 30-year low interest loan.
It was not clear from information released this week by the credit union foundation and Surry Medical Ministries if the $750,000 will be used to retire some of that debt early, or if it will be used to equip the new, larger clinic. Attempts to get more information from medical ministries officials were not successful.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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