Nonprofit started with four volunteers, now at staff of 26
ParkRecord
David Jackson/Park Record
Though the dream of free, quality health care is unlikely to ever become reality on a national scale in the U.S., it’s already so for uninsured residents of Summit and Wasatch Counties.
Over the past 25 years, the People’s Health Clinic has brought the best in health care to individuals who make up the backbone of the Wasatch Back. All it takes is proof of uninsured status and proof of residency to be seen by their team of highly trained medical personnel.
“We don’t actually look at what people’s income levels are,” said Mairi Leining, the clinic’s chief executive officer. “That being said, I mean, wealthy people don’t go to a free clinic, so 98% of our patients live below the federal poverty level.”
This has been the case since its founding in 1999, created in response to a problem that still exists today.
John Hanrahan, a doctor and one of the nonprofit’s founders, said a local family doctor was seeing a lot of Latino patients who didn’t have health care.
“So he went to Father Bob Bussen at St. Mary’s Catholic Church to say, ‘Hey, I’ve seen a lot of your parishioners who don’t have health insurance. Is there something that can be done about that to help them?’” Hanrahan said.
They decided to see if access to free health care would be received by the community and held a health fair at Park City High School to check blood pressure and glucose.
“We had about 700 people show up, which was a massive number for that sort of event,” Hanrahan said. “So that kind of convinced everybody that, yeah, there really was a real need and a big need, and we should move ahead.”
First, they bought a mobile trailer, which had one exam room and one entry room where they could draw blood.
Dalia Gonzalez, at the time a 9-year-old undocumented Park City resident, remembered stepping onto that trailer in its early days. Though her younger siblings were born in the United States after her parents moved from Mexico when she was an infant and had access to health care growing up, she didn’t have that same luxury.
“At the time, we were undocumented, so therefore my parents didn’t have any health insurance. And my parents would take me for my pediatric checkups, and if I was sick, they would take me to the People’s Health Clinic, and I would get my care there,” Gonzalez said.
The People’s Health Clinic was just one of the resources resulting from a generous Park City community, said Gonzalez, who remembered also receiving the opportunity to ski, thanks to a local nonprofit.
“For me it was always like, ‘Wow, I live in such a giving community. I want one day to be able to give back,’” she said.
In high school, Gonzalez began volunteering at the clinic and pursued a path in the medical field. After graduating from the University of Utah, she got a job with Planned Parenthood in Park City.
“The service that they provided in Park City was access to birth control, access to women’s health care. And unfortunately, Planned Parenthood had to leave the Park City community because I remember that the lease went too high,” she said. “That’s when People’s Health Clinic took the plan of, ‘OK, if our partner can’t stay, we need to do something to be able to provide this service.’”
Gonzalez has come full circle, now working as the operations director at the People’s Health Clinic, supporting the medical staff behind the scenes, ensuring they’re fully staffed with the right equipment they need each day.
Since Gonzalez’ and many others’ experience with the clinic 25 years ago, plenty has changed.
