ROSEDALE, Miss.—Rosedale native Erma Johnson climbed the steps of the new Delta Health Center in Rosedale, Mississippi on July 10. Trailing behind her was a hometown friend who was reluctant about going to the doctor.
Johnson takes her hometown’s moniker, “The Delta City of Brotherly Love,” seriously—even when she has to fuss.
“The lady I was fussing at?” Johnson told the Mississippi Free Press, laughing. “She’s hardheaded. I was fussing at her about going to the doctor.”
Though the Delta Health Center has recently started providing residents in west Bolivar County with close-to-home medical services, citizens like Johnson had to drive or ride more than 20 miles to either Mound Bayou or Cleveland for medical attention just three months ago.
“She was going way to Cleveland, and she had some appointments in Memphis and Mound Bayou. The Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou would come pick her up and take her way there,” Johnson said.
For the previous six years, Bolivar County Medical Center has provided a limited line of care to individuals in the western part of the county. However, the clinic closed six months ago, leaving individuals in a healthcare desert.
“We need healthcare here, and we don’t have anyone to take care of us,” Johnson said.
In an effort to provide the citizens of Rosedale and surrounding communities with access to a healthcare facility, the Mound Bayou-based Delta Health Center opened a clinic in the port city on May 11.
Delta Health Center CEO John Fairman says that the addition of this clinic to the Rosedale community helps address transportation needs and lessens patient fatalities awaiting emergency services.
“We were looking at the number of accidents that happen there … automotive, snake bites, other kinds of animal encounters, or issues at the port, or in the town of Rosedale. The amount of time it takes for an ambulance to get there, in many times, proves to be fatal for people,” Fairman told the Mississippi Free Press on July 9.
He added that early intervention can also be the saving grace for life-threatening emergencies.
“That’s why we did it. There was no service on that quadrant of Bolivar County, and there was no primary care, no after-hours, and no urgent-care. … Early intervention for things like heart attacks, strokes, and so on has been documented all over the United States to save lives,” Fairman said.
With the grand opening of the new center happening on June 27, several residents of Rosedale and surrounding communities told the Mississippi Free Press that they are excited about having a close-to-home healthcare facility in the area. The Rosedale location makes the 19th addition to the Delta Health Center system, covering six counties: Bolivar, Washington, Sunflower, Sharkey, Issaquena and Leflore. The system includes 17 brick-and-mortar locations, including five school-based health clinics, and two mobile units.
Tannie Ford, a resident of Gunnison, a tiny town located eight miles north of Rosedale, makes a 25-minute commute to Cleveland to work every day. While he has his own transportation to a medical facility, he appreciates the access the new center provides to those who cannot easily travel.
“It’s good because it’ll keep people from having to go to Cleveland, and it helps people who don’t have transportation,” he told the Mississippi Free Press on July 10.
Help for Healthcare
Delta Health Center has been providing healthcare access to rural communities since 1965. Its roots begin in Mound Bayou, where the initial clinic was an outgrowth of Freedom Summer in 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement.
Co-founded by Dr. H. Jack Geiger and Dr. Count Gibson, two physicians from Tufts University, the medical professionals saw the extreme need for healthcare services in the Mississippi Delta for natives and Freedom Riders in the area.
Starting out as Tufts Delta Health Center, the Great Society-era Office of Economic Opportunity funded the original facility. In 1967, the center became its own entity incorporated under the name of Delta Health Center, Inc.
For the past six years, the Mississippi Delta has experienced a decline in healthcare facilities and continues to navigate troubled waters with the near-closure of hospitals like Greenwood Leflore Hospital and cancer treatment centers in Greenville.
While the Delta Health Center system does not operate full-scale hospitals, it works to meet the primary care needs of individuals in the Mississippi Delta.
“We are excited that this particular opportunity is available in Mississippi. In my judgment, having been in this business for well over 50 years, rural transformation is very much needed,” CEO John Fairman said.
A Challenge to Change
Family nurse practitioner Valerie Antici is the provider for the new Rosedale clinic. Though the new location has only been in operation for about two months, she is no stranger to providing care in the Mississippi Delta.
“I’ve been in the Delta working for almost 20 years. I started nursing and then went back to school and obtained my master’s and became a family nurse practitioner. I’ve been in the Delta as a family nurse practitioner for 13 or 14 years,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on July 10.
Working in the Mississippi Delta for two decades has given Antici firsthand experience with the healthcare needs of its people. As a Department of Transportation-certified provider, she says that the new Rosedale location helps address transportation and dietary issues that citizens in the area face.
“The biggest problem that we have is transportation. Most of the patients that we have are elderly. … You have to make sure you’re getting your point across and giving them examples of things they can eat and can’t eat,” she said.
Antici also added that the Delta Health Center is special in the way that it treats patients and caters to their individual needs, such as medicine discounts and sliding payment scales. While the center accepts most forms of insurance, individuals without insurance are still treated and provided service and care.
“We have a social worker who can help us with those who are underinsured or not insured. We also have a pharmacy at a discounted price, so medications that most people cannot afford, they’re able to come to us and get them for an affordable rate,” she added.
The nurse practitioner said that the impact she makes in the community and on individual patients’ lives is rewarding.
“I’ve seen the improvement. You have a patient that comes in at stroke-level blood pressure and you educate them. You make some changes. I find it to be a challenge, a good challenge,” Antici said.
Rosedale Mayor Jack Coleman also said he is grateful for the new healthcare facility in the port city. With an industrial park that employs nearly a thousand people, he believes that the center is needed for the entire west part of Bolivar County.
“It’s such a huge need for our side of the county. Rosedale is the largest town on the west side of Bolivar County, and it has one of the largest industrial parks. Traveling 20 minutes is a huge expense for people who are elderly or don’t have the means to travel,” Coleman told the Mississippi Free Press on July 10.
The mayor also praises the clinic’s willingness to treat individuals without insurance.
“That’s critical.”
While the new clinic provides a vast amount of family care services to individuals from infancy to geriatric, the center’s hours of operation are limited to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays. That means individuals in need of care after-hours or during the weekend still must commute to Cleveland.
“Right now we’re providing primary care services,” said Delta Health Center CEO John Fairman. “We plan on extending hours in phase two, and phase three, we plan on being open 24/7. We think that it’s needed. We think urgent and emergent care are needed. We think that the people on that quadrant of Bolivar County deserve that,” Fairman said.
As the city of Rosedale and surrounding communities are utilizing the new facility, Erma Johnson said she appreciates the closer access to healthcare for herself and her not-so-hard-headed-anymore friend.
“I’m just glad for the healthcare program to come here. Now, she has no excuse,” she said.
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