Guests partied New Orleans-style last Monday evening at the Moorings Yacht and Country Club, gathering for a Mardi Gras Celebration to benefit the Indian River County Medical Society Foundation, the fundraising arm of the IRC Medical Society We Care program.
Buoyed by colorful beads, the chance to win a pair of diamond earrings donated by John Michael Matthews Fine Jewelry, lively Dixieland music from Mark Zauss and the Jammin’ Jambalaya Band, and food stations that took guests on a culinary tour of New Orleans, volunteers and supporters reveled for a great cause.
“We Care has come a long way from its inauspicious beginnings,” said Miranda Hawker, IRC Health Department Administrator.
The Indian River County Medical Society, founded in 1991 by Dr. Dennis Saver in partnership with the Health Department, provides quality medical care to low-income Indian River County residents. In addition to indigent patients, many are the working poor who, because Florida opted out of the Medicaid Expansion, fall into the Medicaid coverage gap between qualifying for Medicaid and qualifying for marketplace subsides.
To address that need, roughly 140 volunteer physicians and other healthcare professionals donate their time, providing primary and specialty care, radiological and surgical services valued at over $1 million annually. The hope is that by preventing medical conditions from becoming acute, emergency care and hospitalization can be avoided.
The IRCMS Foundation is currently focused on raising funds to reconfigure donated space at the Gifford Health Center, turning it into an independent We Care Clinic with four exam rooms and paid staff.
Every Mardi Gras needs its king and queen, and in this case the honor went to Dr. Saver and Dr. Nancy Baker, both family physicians at Primary Care of the Treasure Coast. Saver also chairs the IRCMS We Care committee and is President of the IRCMS Foundation. For the last 10 years, Baker has donated her services to the program.
In brief remarks, Saver said the Hospital District has agreed to fund a full-time physician and support staff at the We Care Clinic. Contractual details are being finalized to hire the physician through the Indian River Medical Center, enabling a linkage with the hospital.
“As you know, doctors are given the privilege of seeing into the future by gazing in a crystal ball,” said Saver, presaging We Care’s future a year from now.
With an operational We Care Clinic, he envisions an increase of more than 2,500 primary care visits and an increase in volunteer subspecialty referrals. Eventually, through grants, fundraising efforts and community support, they hope to further expand the program.
“Most of us know a story of someone who was stricken by serious illness or accident, became unable to work and (was) bankrupted by medical expense,” said Saver. “An unlucky person might be our neighbor or our relative or, perhaps only prevented by grace, it could you or me. Being impoverished should not also mean being invisible and being told that ‘the doctor is not able to see you.’ The money we have raised tonight will better enable these professionals to help more people and give full care when they volunteer service to those in our community who would otherwise have no options.”
“I thought the party was fantastic, but the best part is there are a lot of faces that I didn’t know,” said Baker. “I think there are more people becoming aware of what We Care does. It’s like the ‘Little Engine that Could,’ finally coming into its own. We could do so much more but we don’t have the capacity to open the floodgate. That’s why we need a clinic with a full-time doctor.”
Baker is hopeful that its recognition as an Impact 100 finalist will help take the organization to the next level, adding, “One of the things we’ve struggled with is that people don’t understand what we do.”
