FERRIDAY &045; A Sicily Island clinic that primarily serves low-income and uninsured patients has been approved for a $666,667 federal grant to establish a satellite clinic in Ferriday.

&uot;We draw a lot of patients from Concordia Parish, but we have limited ways to get them here since we only have one van driver,&uot; said Emma Tarver, administrator of Sicily Island Medical Center. &uot;This will give them (a clinic) closer to where they live.&uot;

Although Tarver was notified about the award last week, her facility won’t receive the grant until December. As a result, the federally qualified health clinic probably won’t open next to Ferriday’s Riverland Medical Center until early spring.

An FQHC is a freestanding health clinic providing an array preventive and primary care services for those who otherwise couldn’t afford health care, with fees set up on a sliding scale based on household income.

Those usually include well-child, acute care, perinatal, family planning, emergency and dentistry services. Such clinics sometimes have social workers or mental health professionals. The clinic will probably contract with a local pharmacist to offer drugs at a reduced rate, Tarver said.

&uot;The purpose is to ensure that low-income people are not denied health care,&uot; Stevens said. But in addition to giving locals on limited incomes greater access to health care, Stevens said the partnership has advantages for the hospital itself.

For example, lab and X-ray services will be performed through Riverland. The grant will pay for patient transportation, and the clinic’s doctor will more than likely refer patients to Riverland when necessary, Stevens said.

The grant will pay for leasing a pre-fabricated building to house the clinic and also includes funds for staffing, equipment and utilities. The value of the Riverland property on which the building will be matched counts as a match for the grant, Stevens said.

Preliminary figures also show such a clinic could have an economic impact of $300,000 to $500,000.

In this round of funding, the Louisiana received a total of $3.35 million to create six new FQHC’s throughout the state.

Five other health centers received funding. Five grants are the most ever awarded to Louisiana in a single community health center grant cycle.