For a time, it seemed as if fewer doctors and nurses were focusing on women in rural Oklahoma as some practitioners retired or shifted their focus.
The staff at Good Shepherd Community Clinic in Ardmore, Oklahoma decided to go in the other direction, with an emphasis on services for women and girls. The health center’s move sparked a sensational response, with several thousand people attending a special event last year, and more expected this year.
The event, called EmpowHer, brought together some 80 local organizations and businesses (including many that are owned by women) to inform people about physical and mental health resources in the community and the availability of social services as well.
The health center also has a freestanding clinic staffed by women focused on women’s health just a few doors down from its primary office. Painted in vibrant colors, it became an instant hit. Called Bloom Women’s Health, the facility offers everything from gynecological care to lactation consults.
“We’ve outgrown the space, so now we need more space,” said Teresa Myers, the health center’s CEO.
Local doctors launched Good Shepherd as a free clinic in 1996, and it now serves close to 10,000 patients a year, drawing people from six counties. The health center strives to provide friendly, individualized service to all comers, and its surveys show that patient satisfaction levels are 97 percent or higher, Myers said. “They’re treated with respect, and they feel that,” she said.
Although it is too soon to measure the effects of the women’s health initiative, Myers said staff members are hopeful about the downstream impact on entire families. In many families, women are the de facto healthcare coordinators for their husbands and children. The warm welcome they receive at Good Shepherd may result in better healthcare for all, Myers said. “They’re the decision makers for families.”