COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — A non-profit medical center in Colorado Springs is back open after being temporarily closed for two months. Mission Medical Center is reopening after having to shut their doors at the end of July.
Mission Medical Center offers free mental, dental, and vision health care for people who are uninsured. The center provides free healthcare services and at-home care medical supplies such as crutches and wheelchairs.
“We are the organization that sees people who fall through the cracks, they are not low-income enough to qualify for Medicaid, yet they do not make enough money to pay for insurance,” Joseph said.
Zelna Joseph has been the Interim Executive Director for Mission Medical Center, since February. Joseph said when she started, the organization was in financial trouble.
“The computer had been cleaned off, there were no electronic documents, and no financial documents,” Joseph said.
Joseph said she thinks some of the financial challenges began when funding from the pandemic started to run out. The center received funding during the pandemic when they offered COVID-19 testing.
“So that funding was coming in but it painted a false picture of the true financial picture of the organization,” Joseph said.
The center is funded entirely through grants and donations, but in July, they ran out of money. This caused the center to temporarily close.
“To everybody else, Mission Medical was dead in the water, but I was like, it is not that bad we have options,” Joseph said.
Joseph was determined to find a solution and get the center's doors back open. Mission Medical was able to get money from the Colorado Primary Care Fund and thousands of dollars in donations from the community.
“So I logged into my computer and a lot of donations came in just one day,” Joseph said.
Joseph is very thankful for the community donations.
“We just can not forget about people who can not afford health insurance, it's that important. For me, this is the definition of community health,” Joseph said.
With money from the care fund and donations, Mission Medical Center was able to start providing services again. People are able to get ABBA Eye Care vouchers through Mission Medical Center as well as pick up free over-the-counter medication. The center has also begun registering new patients.
“We get calls every day from people who have never been here, wanting to know how we can get services at Mission Medical,” Joseph said.
Now that patients are coming back, Joseph’s focus will be on making a plan so they will not have to close again.
"At least have something in writing that says this is who we are, this is where we are going and this is how we are going to get there and that is something I would like to do for mission medical," Joseph said.
The dental clinic has reopened and is seeing patients every Wednesday. Joseph said they hope to start seeing primary care patients starting on Monday of next week.
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