News Release – May 10, 2010
Ford County Oral Health Coalition.
Contact: Ethel Peterson: 620-227-6849
E-mail: thecardfan@cox.net
Dodge City, Kansas. At today’s regular meeting of the Dodge City Rotary Club, Stephanie Waggoner, Chief Executive Officer, of United Methodist Mexican - American Ministries, Inc. (UMMAM) announced that her organization plans to expand UMMAM dental services to the Dodge City area by opening a safety net dental clinic this summer
The dental clinic will provide preventative, emergency and restorative services to include fillings, extractions, root canals, dentures and crowns. Initially, the clinic will be staffed with volunteer dentists, a part-time UMMAM dentist and hygienist. UMMAM hopes to recruit a full-time dentist within the first year of operation.
The focus of the clinic is to provide dental services to the underserved and uninsured in the community and services will be provided on a sliding fee scale based upon the patient’s income level.
Waggoner’s announcement about the UMMAM dental clinic is the culmination of a project initiated by Bill Hammond, USD 443 Director of Business and Finance and Dr. Richard Stein, a practicing dentist in Dodge City. Hammond and Stein, currently President and President-elect respectively of the Dodge City Rotary Club, had discussed the need for oral health education and access to dental care for those unable to currently afford it. With those goals in mind the two began to develop the Ford County Oral Health Coalition.
In addition to himself and Stein, Hammond rounded out the steering committee for the coalition by asking Ethel Peterson, a retired educator, Duane Ross, a retired publisher and Morris Reeves a retired school system financial manager to develop a business plan. The committee found a high degree of interest in the project and the project moved quickly.
Local dentists and hygienists volunteered to donate several hours each month in the clinic. A local oral surgeon offered his services. Two major obstacles were overcome when Kansas Farmers Service Organization, (KFSA) a Hutchinson based insurance and auditing company with Dodge City offices, donated free space in their building in a space where a dental office had once existed and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund approved a grant to help fund the clinic for the first two years.
To help develop the business plan Jason Wesco, Chief Operations Officer, Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, provided advice and information as to how it should be developed. Help was also available from Kathy Hunt, RDH, Project Director for Kansas Cavity Free Kids, and Cathy Harding, Executive Director, Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved.
As the business plan developed the coalition grew. Current membership on the coalition includes, Oral Health Kansas, USD 443 public school nurses and counselors, Center for Independent Living, Ford County Health Department, the Western Plains Medical Complex, the Dodge City Ministerial Alliance, Ford County Council on Aging, Ombudsman for Long Term Care, Arrowhead West, Methodist Youthville, The City of Dodge City, Ford County, Bright Beginnings of Head Start, SRS—Dodge City office, Community Foundation of Southwest Kansas, Ford County Health Department, and United Way of Dodge City.
But, even with all those people and all that effort, the idea for the clinic became reality when UMMAM’s Waggoner and her Chief Financial Officer, Marcie Strine, agreed to expand their service area and to apply their management skills and the experience gained in other communities to the Dodge City location.
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For more information about the Dental Clinic, contact Stephanie Waggoner at UMMAM 620-275-1766 or e-mail at swaggoner@ummam.org.
For more information about the FORD COUNTY ORAL HEALTH COALITION or any of the organizations mentioned in this release contact Ethel Peterson at 620-227-6849 or e-mail thecardfan@cox.net