Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic Expands to Meet Community's Needs

The expansion and renovation will allow the Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic to meet the medical and dental needs of more uninsured community members.

The Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic is in the final stages of a two-phase expansion and renovation project that began in October 2018. The end result will allow the busy clinic to see more patients in a more streamlined way.

"It's a bigger space, more efficient and much more professional looking," notes Executive Director Sally Fabian-Oresic, RN, MSN.

The Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic, located on the ground floor of Doylestown Hospital, provides free medical, dental and social services, medications and basic behavioral health counseling to low-income, uninsured members of our community.

The Doylestown Hospital medical staff and the hospital founded The Free Clinic of Doylestown in 1994 and the clinic became an independent not-for-profit organization in 1997. Adult dental services were added in 2002 under the guidance and support of local dental professionals. Children's dental services were added in July 2010.

The Free Clinic of Doylestown changed its name to Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic in July 2008 in honor and in memory of devoted board member, Ann Silverman.

Last year, there were 5,360 total clinic visits (medical, dental and social services) by adults and children. The clinic also provided free medications, vision tests and glasses, flu shots and assistance with applications for government benefits and other community resources such as food, clothing and shelter.

More than 280 volunteers, including physicians, dentists, nurses, counselors, translators and clerical helpers, donate their time to the clinic. The clinic employs a small paid staff.

The last construction-type work done on the clinic was in 2005. For the latest expansion project, Doylestown Hospital provided additional space so the clinic could remain at the hospital and expand its footprint. An underutilized locker room was renovated into four new medical exam rooms, and the space includes a new locked medicine closet, patient bathroom and storage room.

In the existing clinic, the size of the waiting room was doubled and a private family counseling room created. Two new medical exam rooms were added and a new dental room was added, bringing the total number of dental rooms to three.

The project was done in two phases so the clinic could continue to see patients during construction.

"We're seeing more patients, and the dental program is really growing," says Sally. "There is a great need for dental services. That's the one thing people put off if they lack money or insurance until they really have a problem."

The clinic is now better able to keep up with the need for dental services. For those patients needing a cleaning, an increasing number of students from the Montgomery County Community College dental assistant program come to provide hygiene services.

"We are growing, and just as important we needed to be more efficient," says Sally. "Now we have enough rooms to keep the patient flow going. Medically, that's very, very important."

The clinic is also creating a wall of recognition to honor donors.

The clinic is funded through community donations, an annual golf outing and foundation grants. The clinic does not receive any state or federal funding. An anonymous $250,000 donation helped make the recent expansion possible.

"People really care about what we're doing and we're very happy about that," Sally says. "Our patients really need us. We try to meet as many needs as we can."

Visit the Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic for more information, including volunteer opportunities, or call 215-345-2260.