By: Carl I. Walters II, Chief Executive Officer

 

 

Valued Parish Families,

As I look out over the horizon, I like many of you; see the following national disturbing trends:

• More hard-working families are struggling to make ends meet
• More people are finding it increasingly difficult to land decent paying jobs
• A growing insensitivity to families stuck in the cycle of poverty
• A growing insensitivity to families who have limited ability to pay for core primary care services required to help keep them healthy and whole
• More families struggling with alcohol and other substance abuse
• More families losing their life-balance compass and slipping into states of depression, anxiety and hopelessness
• More people becoming increasingly desperate and willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise even considering doing – just to try and survive
• The gap between the haves and the have nots growing wider
• Repeated examples of failed public policy passed to try and address social, moral, ethical and spiritual equity issues only prayer, a genuine caring for our fellow brothers and sisters and united community resolve to globally elevate the human condition can ultimately solve
• People at increasingly younger ages being debilitated and/or losing their life altogether from not seeking preventative primary care services routinely to help keep them healthy and whole and/or due to their inability to get behavioral health services in time to save their life and;
• “The system” which already has more than its allotted market share; is trying to take what little they don’t already control and/or own from “the people”

This said, never forget that Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) were brought up over 50 years ago in an effort to be a positive solution to these moral; social and spiritual equity to such challenges and we have been “making a positive difference” for over 50 years helping to:

1. Provide professional, integrated, culturally-sensitive, personal and compassionate health care services for our valued parish families
2. Put our valued parish families to work.  When more parish families use our health system services, Outpatient Medical Center, Inc. is better positioned to hire more parish family members and thus elevate the economic condition of our parish families and parish (NOTE: We have doubled the number of people we employ over the last 15 months)
3. Elevate the health and social well-being of our community
4. Save the state and federal government millions of dollars annually
5. Save lives
6. Provide hope and encouragement
7. Make it “safe” to continue to dream
8. Care for our valued community families irrespective of whether they could pay for their services or not

This is the community service mission Outpatient Medical Center Inc. has embraced and fulfilled for almost 41 years now. And yes, there have been times we ourselves questioned where the money would come from to allow us to continue to care for you, but, somehow, some way – GOD always made a way for us to stay on the front lines doing what we love to do – take good care of you. As I prepare to close; let me share these very personal thoughts to each and every one of you:

1. YOU built Outpatient Medical Center Inc. to care for YOU. Protect what you have fought to build by using Outpatient Medical Center Inc. as your family’s medical; dental and behavioral health services provider
2. Do not let anyone tear down what you have helped build; as what you have helped build is legacy; represents a social equity fight that was born out of the social equality movement and which still exists today and is a powerful example of what we can do as a community; when we truly come together as community to care for our community
3. Bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes the” little guy” is the best value money can buy; as it is cheaper for your family to get medical, dental and behavioral health services in our health system than through some of the larger health systems. Outpatient Medical Center Inc. isn’t interested in being the biggest healthcare provider as some systems are motivated to be. We’re only interested in being viewed as being one of the best healthcare systems in our parishes and we never want to become so big that we lose our personal touch with you
4. At Outpatient Medical Center Inc. – it has never been and will never be about the money or being the biggest. It has been and will always be about the honor and the privilege to care about and for you – and keeping your family and you healthy and whole

While we cannot necessarily change what we see happening across the country, we can stand as one community to protect what together we have built in Outpatient Medical Center Inc. I am honored and privileged to stand beside our dedicated Board of Directors (the majority of which are patients) and almost outstanding 100 staff to be out on the front lines every day; taking good care of you. My family and I came to Louisiana to help fight to keep Outpatient Medical Center Inc. ‘s legacy, independence and autonomy alive for another 41+ years and I ask for the community’s unabated support to help me accomplish the same. How can you help you ask? Simple – come see us; keep coming to see us and trust us to do for your family and you, what we have been doing for thousands of community families for over 40 years. 

And let me close with this: If you are someone sitting out there not coming to the doctor or dentist because you have no money, come see us and help us help your family and you stay healthy and whole. If you are among a growing number of people needing hope, inspiration, compassionate care and genuine love and concern, we want to be there for you too. Come see us because at Outpatient Medical Center Inc., caring for you is what we do.

Be well; be informed; be encouraged and be in touch.