Clinic serves Hispanic population

Hickory Hill clinic to help Hispanics
Christ Community looks to aid growing population
By Daniel Connolly, Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 4, 2009

Christ Community Health Services, which runs clinics for the poor, is opening a new center in Hickory Hill and has hired Spanish-speaking staffers to serve the neighborhood's large Hispanic population.

The clinic saw its first 30 patients Thursday and plans a grand opening celebration Tuesday.

"I think it's a wonderful way for us in helping people be better, and hopefully helping a community be better," said Christ Community CEO Burt Waller.

The clinic's opening reflects the economic and demographic changes that have swept Hickory Hill in recent years. Many white residents have left and the number of black and Hispanic residents has boomed.

Major businesses have fled the once-prosperous area for points farther east, leaving behind hulks of decaying suburbia including the Hickory Ridge Mall, which was recently bought by a church.

The strip mall at Winchester and Mendenhall, where Christ Community is located, illustrates the changes.

The shopping center once housed a Kroger's grocery store but it's long gone, as are most of the other major tenants. Big banners advertise vacancies.

Other shopping centers in the neighborhood are dotted with Spanish-language signs that advertise everything from mom-and-pop grocery stores to real estate.

Christ Community, which receives backing from the federal government, began looking for space in Hickory Hill some time ago, said Waller.

"Just as the commercial portion of Hickory Hill had declined through the years, the medical community had declined," he said.

Many patients from the neighborhood were driving to other Christ Community clinics throughout the area, and hospitals complained that patients from Hickory Hill were using their emergency rooms as doctors' offices, he said.

The new clinic will offer checkups and other basic medical care to children and adults and allows patients to pay on a sliding scale. Start-up costs will be about $600,000, Waller said.

The leader of the clinic is Dr. Jeffrey Zsohar, a 35-year-old internist who recently spent about 18 months helping AIDS patients in the southern African nation of Botswana.

He said he's making the rounds of local churches and institutions to let patients know about the services the clinic provides.

Several clinic staffers speak Spanish, said Zsohar, who doesn't know the language himself. Most Hispanics in Memphis are recent emigrants from Mexico and Central America or their children.

There are some local clinics that specialize in treating Hispanics, such as CentroSalud and Medicos Para la Familia.

However, Waller said there's still a need for more services for Hispanics, who face language, cultural and financial barriers as they access care. Perhaps as many as half of the clinic's patients will be Hispanic, Waller said. Hispanics already make up a substantial portion of patients at the other Christ Community clinics.

Zsohar said he's excited about the opportunity to help.

"Starting from a personal point of view, this is an incredible blessing."

Daniel Connolly: 529-5296