Free Clinics and Health Systems: A Vital Partnership

Karen Dulaney, executive director, Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic

The Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia is in a state-of-the-art building opened in 2007 on the campus of Mary Washington Healthcare. “I can see the hospital out my window,” says Karen Dulaney, executive director of the clinic.

The strong connection between the hospital and the clinic is based on more than geography. The relationship began when the clinic first opened with just one paid employee, using an unoccupied guest wing in the hospital.

Founded in 1993, the clinic was the result of a community needs assessment conducted by the Virginia Department of Health the previous year. “The clinic was opened in response to the plight of the uninsured, locally, in Virginia,” says Dulaney, who was the clinic’s first volunteer coordinator, and in 1995 was named executive director.

From the beginning, Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC), a two-hospital system that includes Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital, has supported the clinic, helping it grow and thrive. “The work of the Lloyd Moss Free Clinic aligns perfectly with Mary Washington Healthcare’s mission to improve the health of the people in the communities we serve,” says Phil Brown, director of corporate planning at MWHC.

“Free clinics are an important community asset to improve the overall health of the community’s sickest and most vulnerable populations,” says Brown. The health system’s support of the clinic has been substantial.

“Financially, Mary Washington [Hospital] Foundation provided $5.8 million in funding from 2013 to 2019, and over $15 million since 1994,” says Xavier Richardson, senior vice president and chief development officer, and president of Mary Washington Hospital and Stafford Hospital Foundations.

Read the full story now: The Case for Strong Partnerships Between Free Clinics and Health Systems

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