TAC kicks off health center week

Teche Action Clinic is observing National Health Center Week Aug. 10-16.
To kick off National Health Center Week Teche held a Patient Appreciation Day Monday and a Staff Appreciation Day Wednesday.
Friday Teche Action’s Pediatrics, OB/GYN and WIC divisions will conduct a Breast-feeding Seminar. For more information regarding any of these events, call (337) 828-2550.
Teche Action Clinic is also celebrating its 40th Anniversary during October and has grown from a three bedroom house in Franklin into a network of 10 community health centers in South Louisiana, from Baldwin to Galliano.
Certified by the Joint Commission on Health, Teche has been tapped as a “Primary Care Medical Home” for nearly 18,000 who live along the gulf coast.
Teche Action Board President Leroy Willis said Teche holds its main objective close, and that is to meet the needs of the persons who live in the areas that each clinic serves.
CEO Dr. Gary Wiltz said the original clinic was started by volunteers to serve the seasonal sugar cane workers in 1974. “Now we treat everyone, regardless of their ability to pay,” he said. “About 45 percent of our patients are working, but are uninsured, so we use federal poverty guidelines and charge on a sliding scale. We treat the entire lifecycle of medicine from pediatrics, OB/GYN, internal medicine, dentistry, mental health and primary care. We’re a one-stop shop.”
Teche injects more than $10 million of operating expenditures directly into the local economy annually, according to a survey by Capital Link, a national nonprofit organization that works with community health centers.
Teche Action Clinic operates Louisiana’s only school based clinic in a nine parish region at Baldwin at B. Edward Boudreaux Middle/West St. Mary High School; its main campus in Franklin; a third St. Mary Parish site in Morgan City; a clinic in the fishing community of Pierre Part in Assumption Parish; two clinics in Terrebonne Parish, one in Houma and one in Dulac; two clinics in Lafourche Parish, one in Thibodaux and one in Galliano; and two in St. John Parish, one in Edgard and the other in Reserve.
This fall, Wiltz said Teche Action Clinic together with the St Mary Parish School Board, will expand its School Based Health Center in Baldwin, to include a 40-foot mobile clinic that will service schools within St. Mary Parish.
St. Mary Parish President Paul Naquin said Wednesday that “it takes a special person to run a health care clinic, and we’ve got the special person in St. Mary Parish,” in regards to Wiltz.
“Congratulations (on leading) the oldest health center in Louisiana,” he told Wiltz. “We are in dire need to get other health centers in the parish.”
Franklin Mayor Raymond Harris said he wonders why more communities aren’t eager to have similar facilities. “Before there was Obamacare we had Teche Action Clinic,” the mayor said. “What Obamacare is in theory Teche Action has always been in practice, with compassionate, competent health care at affordable prices.”
Harris said, “When people of Franklin think of health care they think of Teche Action Clinic.”
Mike Lancelin, Baldwin alderman standing in for Mayor Wayne Breaux, is a Teche board member. “I’ve never seen so much dedication in health centers,” he said. “I hope one day we can have a center in Baldwin. It’s been an honor to work with people on the board.”
St. Mary Community Action Agency CEO Almetra Franklin said, “When Teche Action is doing well, Community Action is doing well.”
Franklin said she is “proud to be from a parish where people helping people is not just a statement, it’s an action.”
Marcus Johnson represented Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Wednesday. Johnson said Vitter sent his regard to the clinic and he continues to work on behalf of community health care. “Without federal grants for community health care centers many rural Louisiana residents would not have access to health care,” Johnson quoted Vitter.
Sen. Bret Allain (R-Franklin) said, “The amount of lives that you touch, how you make people’s lives better, that wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for your efforts. I want to applaud what you have done. It’s tremendous.”
Allain said the state also supports community health care centers in a non-partisan manner. “We saw the need, we saw the funding and we’re continuing to fight for new and creative funding, such as partnership between Franklin Foundation Hospital and Teche Action Clinic to continue and prosper and make sure we have good doctors and good services for all the people here.”
State Rep. Sam Jones, (D-Franklin) said that as the clinic formally celebrates its anniversary this fall, it will have completed nearly $10 million in construction, reconstruction and renovation projects.
Wiltz is also Chairman of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). In that role, he is a dedicated advocate who works to help the nation understand the importance of supporting and expanding the 8,000 community health centers across the country. NACHC serves more than 23 million