HARRY HARELIK Contributor Board
For over two years, the world has learned a lot as we grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. In a time of significant health risks, the world is learning how much hope medical professionals offer individuals with health problems and their families. We have learned the grave consequences of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands of more than a million Americans in Central Texas. We also learned the importance of ensuring access to health care for the uninsured and those who are financially unstable in all communities.
One of the bright spots in the two-year battle to suffer from this health problem was undoubtedly Waco Family Medicine, formerly known as Family Health Center. Most residents of McLennan County were relatively unfamiliar with the organization until administrative staff took leadership positions in the challenges COVID-19 posed to our community.
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For those of you who don’t know, WFM arose out of the concerns of the McLennan County Medical Association in the mid-1960s, when there was a shortage of doctors in McLennan County and many in McLennan County lacked qualified doctors. We knew that providing medical care was difficult. A wonderfully detailed history of the residency program written by Dr. Mei YF Wu Wang gives great insight into the formation of his current Waco family and his medicine.
Its history dates back to early medical conferences, including a wealth of memorable names in our community who engaged in early research and casemaking to solve the problem of physician numbers and healthcare affordability. provide a summary of the minutes of the , Dr. H. Frank Connally Jr. was appointed as Ph.D. Maurice Barnes, R. Wilson Crosthwait, Nicholas (Nick) Bellegie, David Dow, William (Bill) Roddy, Ross Shipp, Phil Webb, and Jack Wentworth attended the steering committee to consider these issues Did. In addition, a Subcommittee on Continuing Medical Education was formed in 1965, chaired by Dr. David Dow, with vice chair Dr. Robert Crosthwait Jr. and secretary Dr. Lawrence Canning, and member Dr. Nick. Berezie, James Coleman, Frank Coleman, Howard Dudgeon, James Jolliffe, Walter King, Richard Kleiman, Tom Oliver, Bill Roddy, Robert Saxton, Charles Shellenberger, Milton Sparks, Bill Wagnon.
From this beginning, literally hundreds of community doctors over the past 50 years, along with hundreds of community businessmen and women, have made Waco Family Medicine not only a bastion of community health services, but a residential organization of family training programs. I have participated in He has graduated over 400 physicians and built a medical education system that ranks among the top 2% of home-based training programs in the United States. The community of Waco is indebted to these visionaries who rightly foresaw the need for assistance to underserved communities in McLennan County and the need to attract new young doctors to the community. represents the meaning of
Well over 800 applicants a year wish to join the WFM Residency Program. The three-year program only accepts 12 students each year. As a result, today more than 80% of his GPs in practice in the area are graduates of this local HIS program. His 50-year-old concern that there weren’t enough young doctors in the area was dispelled.
In the 1960s, there was concern about quality health care for the underinsured and uninsured, and today Waco Family Medicine has met that challenge as well. increase. WFM had an ominous beginning on his July 1, 1970. Housed in several rooms of the former Providence Hospital on 18th Street and Colcord, it was called the Community Health Center. Family Practice Clinic, renamed Family Health Center and finally Wako Family Medicine in 2021.
The initial funding was backed by then-State Rep. Lyndon Olson, who, as chairman of the Texas House Higher Education Commission, sponsored a bill (called the Olson Bill) to provide state assistance in training family physicians. rice field. With the strong support and assistance of Dr. Jackson Walker, Edgar Cleaver, and Christian Ramsey became early residency program directors following Clinical Director Dr. May Wang in 1976, and the fledgling program was a success. Later board members included Dr. Sherry Roten and Dr. Robert Brown. Finally, Dr. Roland Goertz, the longest-serving director from 1991 until his retirement in 2020, spearheaded the effort, and Jackson, now a graduate of Waco’s residency program, has Dr. Griggs as his CEO. I am serving
In 1980, the first effort to raise $2.5 million for the 28,000-square-foot facility began, thanks to the efforts of Jack Kartgen, Walter Dossett, Malcolm Duncan Sr., AW “Bill” Bailey, Ed Burleson, Tom Chase, and F. Herman Coleman. I was. , John Davis, Monte Hulce, John Mayfield, Bill Nesbitt, J. Robert Sheehy, Karen Smith, Jerry Winchell, and many citizens and doctors.
Today, Waco Family Medicine employs approximately 600 people and, in addition to its main campus at 1600 Providence Drive, has 14 primary care sites, 4 dental sites, 9 mental health sites, and 9 maternity sites. , serves 60,000 patients in McLennan County each year.
Waco Family Medicine will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on October 20 to begin construction of a new facility to oversee the medical needs and family housing operations of the area into the future. So far, about $28 million has been pledged to bring this new facility to life. Waco and McLennan County have been blessed with visionaries who prepare their communities for the needs of the future. We are blessed with the vision of those of our past and those who work for us today in community medicine.
Waco native Harry Harelik was a self-employed CPA and executive director of the foundation until his recent retirement. He is a longtime supporter of local non-profit organizations. Harelik is a member of the Tribune-Herald Board of Contributors.
