MADISON — Our Lady of Hope Clinic is celebrating its second anniversary of providing free medical care to Dane County’s poor and uninsured population.
The clinic, which first opened its doors to uninsured recipients on June 1, 2009, is Wisconsin’s only primary-care clinic to provide health care, consistent with the Catholic health care tradition, to benefactors, who pay a modest fee for 24/7 direct access to a personal physician, and recipients, or uninsured patients, alike.
Our Lady of Hope Clinic, which was established by Drs. Michael Kloess and Anne Volk Johnson, is patterned after St. Luke’s Family Practice, a similar clinic model in Modesto, Calif.
“It had long been a personal goal to establish a full-time clinic that offers free health care consistent with the Catholic tradition of caring for those in need. Additionally, we have built a culture of life through the way our physicians choose to practice,” Dr. Kloess explains.
“The clinic strongly advocates preventative care, which allows many of our recipients to manage long-term conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, before they require costly emergency treatments or hospital stays.”
In only two years, the clinic has provided over 1,000 clinic visits for uninsured people who would not have had access to a doctor.
The clinic provides concierge-style medical service to its benefactors. In addition to having a private physician on call, benefactors enjoy extended office visits, with a minimum of 30 minutes for each visit.
Drs. Kloess and Johnson, devout Catholics, practice medicine consistent with their faith, and choose not to participate in abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, or write prescriptions for contraceptives. The physicians provide women with natural, pro-life solutions to a wide range of gynecological concerns.
For additional information, visit www.ourladyofhopeclinic.org or contact Julie Jensen, director of development, at 608-957-1137 or [email protected]