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by Maren Jensen, KUTV – Wednesday, October 19th 2022

PARK CITY, Utah (KUTV) — The People’s Health Clinic is a free community clinic that takes care of the uninsured in Summit and Wasatch counties.

“What we do is serve as a safety net for people who otherwise would not have access to health care,” said Dr. Mairi Leining, CEO of People’s Health Clinic.

Dr. Leining says many people probably don’t realize there is a big wealth gap in the Park City area. But there are many people in the area who can’t get typical care.

“The majority of our patients are members of the Latinx community,” said Leining. “They’re really the hardworking members of our community who are staffing all of the resorts.”

SEE THE LIVE REPORT HERE

Tristan Lubina, DNP works at People’s Health Clinic as the Hypertension Program Director. People’s Health Clinic focuses on uninsured individuals in Summit and Wasatch Counties. PHC was awarded the Platinum level for this year’s Excellence in Blood Pressure Measurement and Control Award. Please enjoy Tristan’s presentation on Self Measured/Home Blood Preasure Monitoring which was submitted for review for this award.

KPCW | By Leslie Thatcher

Published July 11, 2022 at 3:33 PM MDT

The People’s Health Clinic is beefing up its women’s health offerings and has hired two new staff members dedicated to that responsibility.

Dr. Tania Bodnar has joined the People’s Health Clinic as its first Women’s Health Medical Director – a newly created position. Joining her will be nurse practitioner Elizabeth Jacobsen, a volunteer who will serve as the assistant medical director for women’s health.

CEO of the People’s Health Clinic Mairi (sounds like SORRY) Leining (LINING) says this commitment to women is in part due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade – a ruling that took away a woman’s federal right to an abortion – leaving it up to individual states to decide whether a woman can receive an abortion.

A fundraiser later this month, Walk and Wine, will support Bodnar’s salary. Leining says the fundraiser will also help raise the standard of women’s health care at the clinic for family planning services.

“It is to purchase birth control pills for our patients, as well as emergency contraception,” Leining said. “So, we can actually give our patients medications directly when they come to clinic. We also use the funding to get IUDs and implants; all forms of birth control, which, again, our patients are uninsured and the costs of birth control, it’s very expensive.”

She said there’s a big need for more health care for women. The number of requests for women’s health visits, she says have gone up by about 70% in the last year.

“In addition to that,” Leining said, “we have a lot of medically complicated patients and to have somebody with her [Dr. Bodar’s] level of training and years of experience is just really meaningful for improving the standard of care we can offer women in our town.”

More than 60 years after the approval of oral contraception, the Food and Drug Administration recently received its first application to supply a birth control pill over the counter without a prescription. The French company that filed the application, HRA Pharma, told the New York Times that the timing of the submission – just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade is just a coincidence.

Leining says the clinic wants to make sure women have easy access to affordable birth control.

“It’s just really important to make sure community members around you who may not have health insurance or may not be eligible for government subsidies, know about People’s Health Clinic,” Leining said. [That they] know that we have free contraception available and counseling services. I just want to make sure that we’re able to give women the upper hand as much as possible during this time.”

Leining added that in the last year, the clinic has created a program for same-day contraception. What that means is even if the clinic can’t make an appointment for a full health exam for another month, anyone who is uninsured and needs birth control immediately can call the People’s Health Clinic, and Leining says they will get them in that day.

Join us for our 2022 Walk & Wine event at Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley. The event is July 31st from 10:30am to 2:00pm. You can join us for morning yoga or a hike at Deer Valley and ride the chairlift down, or just join us for the 12:30 Luncheon at the Lodge—all in support of women’s health services and healthcare for those most in need in our community. Only a few tickets remain, to buy a table or tickets, you can go here!

Just recently, a generous donor came forward to donate $150,000 for a matching grant for women’s health services in this critical time. We are glad to announce that our matching grant for Women’s Health at People’s Health Clinic is underway!  To date we have successfully raised almost $40,000.  We need your help to leverage this generous match— would you be willing to financially support our vital healthcare for women?

Funding will be used for expansion of our same-day contraception program, emergency contraception and family planning services. Funding will also allow us to hire an additional women’s health practitioner to expand appointment availability for our patients and to continue our clinic’s overall work.  Last year alone our patients’ need for women’s health services grew by 70%.  Given recent developments, we are anticipating an even greater need to provide and fund these essential services.  Your support toward health equity for women in our community is crucial.  Please consider a gift of $5,000, $10,000 or more and help us fully match and quickly grow this effort.

Please consider your most generous support in this urgent moment: we need you with us, right now—for women’s health. Please join us today!

Thank you for your consideration and support—we can’t do it without you!   If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Ryan Newcomb, our Chief Development Officer at ryan@phcpc.org or by phone at 817-905-7372.

Park City, UT (March 3, 2022) – Mairi Leining, MD, current Medical Director at People’s Health
Clinic, will be taking over as Executive Director. Dr. Leining replaces Beth Armstrong who
started a new position with the Intermountain Foundation in January after serving as Executive Director since 2016. “I couldn’t be happier to pass the reins to Mairi! She has been passionately committed to the Clinic’s mission to provide quality healthcare to the uninsured families of Summit and Wasatch counties as a volunteer medical provider and then Medical Director, following Dr. John Hanrahan”, said Beth.

“People’s Health Clinic has an exceptional team of passionate employees and volunteers who elevate healthcare for our uninsured community members. I am honored and excited to lead this talented team as we achieve our vision of health equity,” said Dr. Leining.

The last two years have been a challenging time for all who work in healthcare. People’s Health Clinic experienced a 30% increase in the number of patient visits in 2021 and COVID required creative solutions for delivering care to those in need. “Because of the pandemic, we now have a societal awareness that quality healthcare access is essential to prevent tragic inequalities in morbidity and mortality among our hard-working residents. People’s Health Clinic is a medical home for our community members who live in poverty, and we must expand this safety net to effectively serve our growing population. We are currently searching for a new Medical Director and a new Development Director to join our incredible staff. There are many volunteer opportunities at the Clinic also. We’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in getting involved!”, said Dr. Leining.

Prior to joining People’s Health Clinic, Dr. Leining worked as a hospitalist and served as the ICU Medical Director at the Park City Intermountain Hospital. She has also worked in South Lake Tahoe and at the University of California San Francisco as a hospitalist. Leining completed her internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, and medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Si Hutt, Chair of the Board of Trustees and Hospital Administrator at Intermountain Heber Valley Hospital, said “I have known Dr. Leining for nearly 10 years and am very excited to work with her in this role. After completing a thorough and disciplined search, our Board determined that Mairi was our strongest candidate, in a pool of strong candidates. Her vision, approach, and skill have already made a positive impact as the Medical Director, and we are very impressed with her ideas and plans for the future.”

When asked what Leining’s inspiration is to do good in the world as a doctor, she responded, “I read a quote by Dr. Paul Farmer that changed the course of my medical practice, ‘For me, an area of moral clarity is: you’re in front of someone who’s suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.’ In Summit and Wasatch counties, we have the tools to evaluate and resolve healthcare disparities. Our town is filled with community members who have the compassion, skill sets, and funding to make our town a national leader in health equity.”