MSU Collaborative Care Clinic offers free care to all comers

The grand opening of Missouri State University’s 17,000-square-foot Collaborative Care Clinic celebrated the availability of multiple clinical services in a centralized location Feb. 20.

The clinic is located on campus on the first floor of the Ann Kampeter Health Sciences Hall, at the northeast corner of Cherry Street and Kimbrough Avenue.

There, graduate students from speech-language pathology, counseling, audiology and psychology provide services to members of the public under direct faculty supervision.

Services available at the clinic include counseling, speech-language pathology diagnostics and treatment, hearing and balance testing, hearing aid services and psychological and learning diagnostic services, according to a news release from MSU.

Interviewed after the grand opening ceremony, Mark Smith, dean of the McQueary College of Health and Human Services, said the building project has been ongoing for five years.

“It’s been amazing to see the building come alive this last couple weeks,” he said.

The clinic opened its doors Jan. 26. It is open to patients of all ages from the university and broader community on weekdays, and services are offered pro bono. Smith said the clinic does not accept Medicaid or do billing, but occasionally there is a request for a donation for counseling services. While audiology services are free, Smith noted there is a charge for hearing aids and related components.

Care experience
Smith said the clinic offers valuable practical experience for graduate students.

“It’s the only way to train people and to teach them,” he said. “As long as people are aware of that and are comfortable with that, then that’s what this is. You’ll be seeing a second- or a third-year student in graduate programs.”

Smith said there are philanthropic options available, among them naming opportunities for some of the spaces in the building. He said the building has been paid for, but a naming-level sponsorship or donation goes directly to services, scholarships and students.

“If they want to name one of the clinic spaces or the sound booths – or it’s a bit more of a seven-figure for the entire clinic – then we’re happy to do that,” he said.

Smith confirmed that the space will offer more opportunities for research and collaboration.

“When you’re doing research in the way that I think academic research should be, which is the pragmatic research, you’ve got to do it in a controlled environment. We have that all the way through,” he said.

Smith said some other research facilities on the second and third floor of the building will open in September.

“I would put us as the leader of health care in this region by far,” he said of local higher education institutions. “We’ve come a long way.”

Smith said the university has offered care for a long time.

“We’ve had them, but less-than-ideal spaces – very inappropriate facilities, run-down, dilapidated,” he said. “Even if it’s free, you want them to have the best experience as a patient. We already know that people struggle – especially the kind of populations we already serve and work with.”

When clients are fearful of health care, it’s important to provide safe, welcoming, comfortable spaces.

As a bonus, he said, students get to see it.

“Modalities of health do not live independently,” he said. “If you’ve got a mental health issue, there’s usually a problem or a reason – and the same with speech and hearing.”

In the collaborative clinic, it’s easy to match patients up to other services as a need is discerned.

Student experience
Smith said the clinic is already a draw for potential students, with 300-350 graduate students from master’s and doctoral programs going through it each year.

“The student experience – this is second to none in an educational facility,” he said. “That’s what they’re looking for. Students are looking for a sense of community, a welcoming place and a state of the art [facility] where they’re cared for.”

MSU President Richard “Biff” Williams spoke at the grand opening ceremony, and he said he walked through during one of his first days on campus, when the clinic was cement dust and stud.

He compared the McQueary College of Health and Human Services to a rocket ship, both in terms of enrollment and of its service to the community.

“It really is an example of what we’re trying to do as a university with our strategic plan,” he said.

Williams said the strategic plan focuses on ways the university can serve the community, while offering best practices in teaching people how to be health care providers.

“Looking at our upgraded patient evaluation spaces, play therapy rooms – this is one of the best facilities, I think, to promote interprofessional education,” he said.

Williams said education is all about student success, and he called the clinic a hub of opportunity.

“We are training the health care workers for tomorrow,” he said. “What better way to do that in a controlled clinic experience where our experts, our facility, can really observe what our students are doing, critique what they’re doing in a positive way so that when they get out into the field that they’re serving others.”

State Rep. Melanie Stinnett, R-Springfield, also spoke at the ceremony to commend the university on its collaboration.

“Health care doesn’t happen in silos,” she said. “Hospitals can’t solve workforce challenges by themselves; clinics can’t train professionals alone; and universities can’t educate in isolation.”

She added that to have access to care tomorrow, it’s important to train people here, now and in our community.

“This isn’t abstract economic development, but practical preparation for real jobs that Missouri desperately needs,” she said.