JACKSON, Wyo. — The Teton County Health Department’s (TCHD) Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinic will likely reduce services next week, as its lead nurse practitioner is scheduled to leave the clinic at the end of this week to relocate with her family.
Last Monday, Director of TCHD Dr. Travis Riddell provided the Board of County Commissioners with his department’s first monthly update since taking the helm at the beginning of August. He announced that TCHD’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinic is facing an uncertain future, which could include cuts or dissolution.
Riddell spoke with Buckrail on Wednesday to elaborate on the current dilemma, which stems from a decade-long partnership between TCHD and St. John’s Health.
In 2014, after local nonprofit Western Wyoming Family Planning closed its doors, the public health department was “acutely aware” of the lack of sexual wellness services, Riddell said. TCHD worked to bring the clinic under its umbrella, and through a collaboration with St. John’s Health, the new clinic opened with one nurse practitioner. That nurse practitioner — who is the one leaving — was an employee at the hospital, and St. John’s agreed to donate some of her time as a way to contribute to the overall value of the clinic.
“She is a hospital employee and basically worked under that employment here at our clinic,” Riddell said. “With her leaving, it raises this question of how we will fill that gap.”
Since opening, TCHD has hired additional nurse practitioners, provided case management and interpretation services support, paid all of the overhead and provided all the supplies. The clinic provides critical services like STI testing, education and treatment; a variety of contraceptives; pregnancy testing, education and counseling; pap smear, pelvic and breast exams; and preventative HIV treatment.
Riddell told Buckrail that TCHD is working with St. John’s to see if they can once again find a collaborative path forward. There is hope that the hospital will continue to see the value of the clinic from a community and financial standpoint, as well as a preventative service. Until a long-term solution is found, Riddell anticipates a decrease in services for the short term. This could come as early as next week.
“This is a service that ends up being mostly free for the people who attend it, it’s not a big money-making clinic,” Riddell said. “It serves to keep people from seeking those services [elsewhere] — which in many instances would go uncompensated if they were to receive them within the fee-for-service medical system. It also, we expect, prevents things like unwanted pregnancies and unwanted trips to the ER for STIs.”
TCHD Reproductive Health Nurse Coordinator Jenny Barbera told Buckrail that the clinic has a nurse practitioner present 28 hours per week. Of those 28 hours, 16 of them are donated by St. John’s and are the hours at risk of being lost. Over the last year, the clinic provided approximately 1,000 visits to low-income and uninsured or underinsured community members. About 65% of those individuals went in for STI screenings.
“We live in a time and era where unfortunately access to these types of services is losing ground and losing support, from a government funding standpoint and, some cases, even from a legal standpoint,” Riddell said. “I think the community values these services, and I personally value these services. It is a big priority of mine to, at the very least, maintain and hopefully, over time, expand what we can offer.”
