"I see the whole thing unraveling," said Ann Torregrossa, deputy director of the state Office of Health Care Reform. "That would be a real shame. It's an amazing little place."
"They need money desperately," said Marvin Schatz, chief of the hospitalist division at Albert Einstein Medical Center, who just two weeks ago joined St. Catherine Labour's board.
He said the clinic's service was indispensable. The number of uninsured has reached at least 47 million nationwide. And 25 million adults who have some insurance still can't afford their care, according to a study released this week by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund.
"With the economy the way it is, it could be you, could be me," Schatz said.
Palos-Samsi and physician Sheila Davis started the clinic on the sidewalk in front of the St. Vincent de Paul parish church in East Germantown. They were church members and felt the calling.
They soon moved the clinic to the YWCA across Germantown Avenue, and then a few years ago to a building at 5838 Germantown Ave.
Davis and Palos-Samsi never developed a business plan, or spent time trying to build a base of private contributors.
"We just opened," said Davis, 47. "We saw the need and decided to meet the need. That worked for a lot of years."
"As we grew larger and larger," she added, "our time became more crunched. We didn't have time to build the organization and do the fund-raising. We lost track of how quickly we were getting to the point where we can't do it all ourselves."
The clinic, open Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., operates much like a professional doctors' office. It gets about 60 patients a week. Each pays $10 a visit.
"We're like old-time country docs," Palos-Samsi said.
The clinic has a devoted group of volunteers without whom it could never succeed.
It has survived primarily on grants from a few faithful foundations. The annual budget is $330,000, with two-thirds going to pay the three medical professionals.
