FORT DAVIS — A 40-foot shipping container is the unlikely home of a new medical clinic in Fort Davis, where county officials, citizens and representatives from two Texas universities gathered to celebrate its opening last Friday. Proponents of the clinic hope it will bring critical medical services to Jeff Davis County, where the ratio of providers to residents is 1 to 2,000, prompting many to travel elsewhere for help or to delay care.
The clinic is located behind the emergency services building west of the county courthouse. Raiders and Aggies milled about under the hot sun last week, listening to remarks from several speakers before the ribbon was cut and clinic tours began. Texas A&M BUILD, a student-led organization which has constructed several shipping container clinics across the state and the world, recently put up the structure — the first of its kind due to a collaboration between A&M and Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC).
“The clinic will be equipped with telehealth and tele-counseling capabilities, offering convenient access to healthcare provided by both universities’ health science centers,” university representatives wrote in a press release. “Licensed professionals from the Texas A&M Health Telehealth Institute will provide tele-counseling services, while TTUHSC family medicine doctors and medical residents based at Texas Tech Physicians in Odessa will provide telemedicine services.”
As is customary for A&M’s shipping container clinics, the Fort Davis site is dedicated to a fallen Aggie veteran — Airman 1st Class James “Adam” Lassiter, who died in 2012 while on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. Several members of the Lassiter family were present for the clinic’s unveiling. Doug Moreland carved a sculpture of Lassiter out of wood, which greets patients outside of the door.
County Judge Curtis Evans, who has been pursuing increased medical care for the county for sometime, said the clinic opening is “a relief.” “There is a place where people can get help,” Evans said. “We can test these kids if they’re sick; mom and dad can afford to come here. That’s my goal, is for them to be able to get their kids help, get their families help, get the medical attention they’re going to need.”
Evans said several foundations contributed funds towards the new clinic, though he did not respond to a request for specifics by press time. The Texas Tech and Texas A&M medical centers are using their own budgets to help support the operation for now.
The county is also working to hire a telemedicine assistant — who will help take vital signs and perform other basic functions — to staff the clinic, which may be paid for with grant funds, he said. The county intends to post on social media and distribute flyers to get the word out about the new micro facility, he said.
A handful of local residents that spoke to The Big Bend Sentinel at the ribbon-cutting were still a little confused about how the clinic is going to work after the remarks and walk through, but they were interested to see how it was going to evolve and generally grateful for more medical care options.
Dr. Adrian Billings of Alpine, associate academic dean of the Rural and Community Engagement Division in the School of Medicine at TTUHSC, offered some clarity in a follow up conversation with The Sentinel. He explained that the operation of the Fort Davis clinic will somewhat mirror the Marathon Health Center, another telehealth clinic partnering with Texas Tech that has added more services and hours overtime.
“The evolution of these telehealth clinics when they begin is they start at one level and then with time they work towards becoming more of a full-service clinic with the capabilities of any other walk-in clinic that you go to,” Billings said. “But oftentimes they start with just the telehealth camera.”
Billings said the Fort Davis clinic is set to officially open to patients sometime in August once a telehealth coordinator is in place. The “Davis Mountain Clinic,” as it has been coined, will initially be open two days a week, with the goal of expanding to Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The clinic will accommodate Spanish speakers.
For now, patients will need to schedule visits in advance. The clinic will charge a $30 flat fee per visit and is not yet able to bill insurance due to complications that are still being worked out, Billings said. The clinic will be able to write prescriptions but will not yet offer lab testing for things like strep throat, COVID, and tests associated with chronic conditions like diabetes. Billings said there are future plans to purchase equipment that will make data and testing available so that patients can get treated faster.
He said Tech and A&M are hoping to eventually demonstrate the effectiveness of their collaborative new model, in order to gain legislative funding to open similar clinics in other rural parts of the state. “Each of our institutions recognizes that the rural healthcare crisis is larger than either of us can impact on our own, but we can certainly be more impactful working together,” Billings said. “That’s really the spirit of this collaborative effort — to work together to really improve access to rural healthcare.”
To make an appointment at the Davis Mountain Clinic, call 432-426-0012.