The Clinic that Volunteers Built
By Martha Lepore

   Great American entrepreneurs rarely start in fast-track surroundings. Think Henry Ford on a farm, Steve Jobs in a garage, Joe Carroll in a warehouse. Despite humble beginnings, each forged such unique approaches to transportation, information processing and homeless services respectively that those fields have been forever changed.

   Working out of a San Diego warehouse in 1982, Father Joe championed a one-stop-shopping approach to help the needy regain self-sufficiency. His comprehensive residential program called for meals and housing as well as education, counseling and health services.

   Unlike other entrepreneurs, Father Joe’s program depended heavily on volunteers. He made appeals all over Southern California and many people responded with donations while others offered their talents. Mary Case, who oversaw the development of programs, was also in charge of volunteers. Using her master’s degree in social services administration, Case coordinated the prototype programs that became the Continuum of Care in the new center.

   Case welcomed volunteer physicians and nurses and worked with them to initiate a program of medical care. "We had people in need and they had the expertise," she says. "We were very grateful for their willingness to be involved."

   One of the first to come forward was ophthalmologist Robert Stocklin, who belonged to Our Lady of Grace parish where Father Joe served after his ordination.

  Meeting in a warehouse

   " Father wanted a medical advisory board and asked me to be on it. Our first meeting was in the warehouse where the Bishop Maher Center is now," recalls Stocklin. "I didn’t see patients back then and spent my time recruiting. Rob Roth was one of the more active participants."

  A specialist in internal medicine, Robert Roth credits Stocklin with creating the early medical program. "He really is the father of the clinic – started it and shepherded it through the early years of development," says Roth. "He stayed at the helm of the medical board and developed the initial protocols."

   Health services were first offered at the St. Vincent’s shelter when it was located in the old Travolator Motor Hotel on 7th and Ash, across from the El Cortez Hotel.

   " On a rotating basis, six or seven of us, mostly from Kaiser Permanente, would see patients in the evening only after we finished our work," Roth recalls. "We had very little, a dining room table with a cloth over it for exams, a stethoscope and a filing cabinet with donated medicines. If we diagnosed something serious, we would refer the person to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest.

   " In those days, patients were so grateful for even the most minor thing we could do for them, they hadn’t seen a doctor in years," continue Roth. "We saw mostly problems resulting from living on the street – rashes, foot problems and chronic infections. They were overwhelmingly grateful, just to be treated like human beings. This was inevitably gratifying, yet frustrating – to be there and have so little to offer them."

   In 1985 Frank DiTraglia joined Dr. Stocklin in recruiting volunteer physicians. Retired but with degrees in medicine and law, DiTraglia put his education and skills to work up to 40 hours a week, calling physicians and asking them to work three or four hours a month.

   " I was very truthful about the situation, about working with the homeless," he says. "The pitch was successful and we usually had one or two doctors helping every day. We had some really devoted ones. Dr. Greubel was one of them."
A retired practitioner of family medicine, Thomas Greubel remembers how grateful patients were to receive treatment. "They’d always thank us and say they hoped we would be there the next time," he notes.

  Original clinic closes

  When the Travolator closed in the mid-80s, the nascent clinic moved to an apartment building on 17th Street off Imperial Avenue. About that time, Mary Case added several nurses to the medical board including Joan Flagg, Rose Fox and Thérèse Rymer.

" I heard Father Joe speak about building a homeless center, and I told my San Diego nurse practitioner interest group that St. Vincent’s might be a place for us to do community service. I went to an information meeting and was recruited by Dr. Stocklin," Rymer says.

Roth and Rymer worked together on a monthly basis at the 17th Street clinic before the one in the Joan Kroc Center opened. One evening stands out in her memory.

" Dr. Roth was going to be late, so I opened the little room and triaged patients. There was a young woman in labor, and I put her in the back room and periodically timed her contractions. In the meantime I had to check an infant with an ear infection, a man with a respiratory problem and others who were lined up on the veranda," she says. "When Rob arrived, I told him about the pregnant woman and he said, ‘I don’t do OB,’ and I said, ‘You do now!’ We eventually sent her to the hospital."

Stocklin, Roth, DiTraglia, Greubel, Rymer and others worked with Mary Case on the plans for the Joan Kroc Center Medical Clinic, which opened in 1988. Dr. Greubel sums up their early efforts: "I knew we would succeed because the need was great. Once we moved into the new building, the number of patients increased and our services increased. No one knew then how successful the clinic would become."
Health Services at St. Vincent de Paul Village Today

From the modest beginnings described in the accompanying story, Health Services at the Village now offers a wide range of specialties in an expanded clinic located at the Paul Mirabile Center.

The specialties include dentistry, dermatology, cardiology, endocrinology, family medicine, gynecology, internal medicine, obstetrics, ophthalmology, pediatrics, psychiatry and rheumatology. A fully stocked dispensary and laboratory services are also available.

According to Clinic Medical Director Margaret McCahill, M.D., the clinic logs over 25,000 patient encounters per year and is a sought-after training site for human service professionals in many disciplines.

" From the hard work of our founding team has come a clinic that serves the poor in very large numbers and it also teaches health professionals lessons and values that they will carry forward into their careers for decades to come," says McCahill. "What an awesome job our clinic founders have done!"

St. Vincent de Paul Village Health Services 2003 Advisory Boar

Marissa Atkins
Margaret Murphy-Beal, R.N.
Frank DiTraglia, M.D.
Frank Duran, D.D.S.
Lorraine Fitzsimmons, F.N.P.
Rose Marie Fox, P.H.N.
Thomas Greubel, M.D.
Andrew Hull, M.D.
Carol Neidenberg
Michelle Paul
Robert Roth, M.D.
Thérèse Rymer, F.N.P.
Robert Stocklin, M.D.
Margaret McCahill, M.D.
Medical Director
Teresa Simms, Program Manager
Patricia LaDouceur, Volunteer Services

Caption: Nurse Practitioner Thérèse Ryme, Doctors Robert Stocklin and Robert Roth, Doctors Margaret McCahill and Thomas Greubel, and Dr. Frank DiTraglia