Hope Clinic celebrates 10th anniversary with open house
Volunteers at the Hope Clinic offered tours at the 10th anniversary open house on Saturday, Sept. 14. Pictured from left are Shirley Stewart, Geraldine Lahna, Deb Johnson, and Cindy Abood.
COSHOCTON – The Hope Clinic in Coshocton celebrated its 10-year anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 14 with an open house at their facility. The Hope Clinic has been in operation since Sept. 10, 2009 and since that time, the clinic has served 7,491 patients and 71 volunteers have logged 40,169.75 clinic hours. There have also been 1,887 patients who have sought ministry in the prayer room and 4,072 have submitted prayer requests.
The Hope Clinic is comprised of doctors, nurses, and other volunteers from throughout the county who volunteer their time once a week on Thursdays beginning at 5 p.m. to serve patients in the county who have no insurance.
The building used to be a dry cleaner and before that time was a hardware store. The building was then donated to them by Jeanne Davis Callahan and dedicated in memory of Shawn Callahan. Prior to that, they set up make-shift exam rooms at the Coshocton County Career Center where patients were seen.
“Then we had this awesome gift from Jean,” said Kevin Doherty, who started the Hope Clinic and other clinics in the state with the same principle. “Rick [Merrill] brought me over here [to the building] one night after a clinic and there was no electric, there were holes in the wall, and Rick brought me over here with a flashlight and said, I imagine this as the Hope Clinic.”
Trustees from the sheriff’s office helped to refurbish the building and make it into what it is today.
“One guy got out of jail before we had finished and he still came back every day to work,” said Merrill.
Merrill said that the clinic has been blessed by God and that there can be no other explanation for its success.
“God has blessed us,” he said. “You can’t explain this except that God has smiled down on us.”
Whenever Doherty opens a new clinic in the state, he said the Hope Clinic in Coshocton is a model for other clinics.
“When we are opening up a new clinic, the Hope Clinic of Coshocton County is the poster child,” said Doherty. “The success of this clinic all points back to God. It’s faith-based and totally volunteer-run. There are so many people behind the scenes who make this happen.”
Doherty said that research shows that when a person is in need of medical attention, whether they are at the end stages of their life or have just been diagnosed with a medical illness, that faith is an important aspect to that person.
“Our goal at the Hope Clinic is to share the hope that we have in Christ Jesus,” said Doherty. “We don’t pound people over the head with The Bible, but we offer it. We offer prayer rooms and sometimes, they don’t accept it, but it is offered here.”
Doherty said that not offering spiritual guidance during death or an extreme illness is doing the patient a disservice.
“We treat the finite here, the high blood pressure and stuff, but we also offer the eternity,” he said.
Doherty has five clinics in operation throughout the state with another one set to open soon.
“The reason I got into medicine, it was a calling from God,” said Doherty. “I felt like God led me into medicine. My first medical mission trip was to Haiti and after that I went to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, and when I came back, I thought of what an enjoyable and uplifting thing it was to. So, I said, why can’t I do that in my own backyard?”
Since then, seven clinics have opened with five that still remain to this day.
“Each clinic has its own uniqueness,” said Doherty. “This clinic is successful because of the faithfulness of the board, the volunteers, and the prayer warriors behind the scenes who have been faithful to the guiding reasons behind this clinic, which is to share the hope of Jesus Christ.”
Since its opening, the all-volunteer staff has returned $1,686,887 worth of services to the community.
Category: Faith
