Katallasso
Serving York County
March 2014
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Katallasso Provider Spotlight
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Michele Munch
C.R. N.P
has served at Katallasso right from the beginning as a women's health practitioner.  Michele started her career as a 9 year Emergency Department Registered Nurse.  She returned to school and received her Masters in Nursing from the University of Delaware in 1994 and then her Masters in Nurse Practitioner from Salisbury State University.  Michele has spoken nationally for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and currently guest lectures at York College and Lancaster School of Nursing as well as teaching Pharmacology on line.   Currently she works in women's health at The Fertility Center in York.  Thank you so much Michele for your servants heart and helping Katallasso Reach Beyond Healthcare!
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Volunteer of the Quarter
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Ruth Vaughn   
is one of our GEMS here at Katallasso.  I'll let our Medical Director Duane describe her service..."humble, teachable, compassionate, caring, gentle, a person of devoted love for Jesus and loving what she does!" Ruth has spent 45 years as a Registered Nurse.  She has been on MANY foreign missions trips and serves here locally at Katallasso and feeding the hungry in York.  She is married to Sam and they have 2 grown children and 6 grandchildren. Thank you Ruth for your commitment to Reach Beyond Healthcare!  
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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
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York Christian Church 
This group from York Christian Church came to Katallasso and spent a Saturday afternoon doing some construction (installing a ceiling) and interior decorating.  Thank you so much Marc, Michelle, Jim, Gaile, Ed, Jeff, Seuang and especially Jen for setting this up!  And thank you for your support of Katallasso!!

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CLOSETTECH

 
 
Katallasso would like to thank Mike and (pictured here) Brian from Closettech for remodeling our medical supply closet.  What a great job they did maximizing our space.  Thank you SO much for your support of Katallasso!!

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To our Gift of a Day Donors:

Names are posted at Katallasso in the waiting room on the day of support and in the Medical Area permanently.

(This program was started in October 2013.  $750
supports one day of service at Katallasso.  Any donor contributing that amount in one year is a member of our Gift of a Day Program)

Thank you so much for supporting Katallasso!!

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Lincoln Charter School

William Valyo's art classes from Lincoln Charter School 2 blocks from Katallasso provided us with some much needed art for our walls.  April 1st they will be changing the seasons to Spring.  Can't Wait!!!
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Just for a little NOSTALGIA....
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Take a look at these early videos before Katallasso was open.

Click Here to see our very first introductory video.

Click Here to take a look at demolition day.
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SOOOO much has been happening at Katallasso since the last newsletter!  Read on to see just a few of the things going on at the center..... 
One Year Behind us
  Happy birthday candles and balloons burning on a cake
On January 7th
at Katallasso we celebrated our 1 year anniversary.  WOOOOHOOOO!!  What an amazing year as we watched lives being impacted through medical visits, counseling, surgeries, rehabilitation and strong encouragement.  God has truly blessed us through our donors and the incredible encouragement of His people.  During this first year we had the incredible privilege of serving 294 folks (now 360) through 654 visits (Now almost 800).  It would take the rest of the newsletter to list all of the great things tht happened over the first year.  Katallasso could not have done it without our awesome staff of volunteers who chose to bring their talents and training to serve God sacrificially at the center.  In recognition of this we held our first annual Board supported dessert social at the Yorktowne Hotel.  A great time was had by all
OK, so now what's in the future?
  
The Katallasso vision, from inception, goes much beyond our current 2500 square feet and even beyond health ministry.  We are continually looking for ways that we can impact lives and our community further.  And we believe we have found some!  We will continue to solidify our medical model and continue to work hard on our sustainability financially but we cannot ignore what our clients are telling us.  Stay tuned in future editions as we develop further ministry in the neighborhood of Salem Square and the City of York.
We are commonly asked what makes us unique at Katallasso.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........ 


Certainly, and most obviously, the fact that we are faith based and seek to honor the King by taking care of His creations makes us unique from any clinic in York.  The wheel above depicts our desire to treat the whole person.  While it is our belief that most health care professionals would love to treat the whole person, at Katallasso we actually do it by enforcing patient visit times that give them the time to do so.  Our goal is for new patients to get a minimum visit of 45 minutes and follow ups to be at least 30 minutes.  The wheel above can be found throughout Katallasso and shows all of the elements of a life.  At typical medical offices there is only time to focus on the medical portion of life.  Here at Katallasso we seek to provide high quality medical care but truly desire to focus on the non medical areas of life that many times lead to physical issues.  Soon patients will be asked to rate the areas of their lives so that we can track how they view these areas of their lives.   "Health care is not just about feeling better but about living well"  Dr. Scott Morris

Katallasso...Reaching Beyond Healthcare! 
 Answered Prayer

Debt free after just one year...are you serious?  Last November we started praying that we would be able to come out of 2013 debt free and have some money in the bank.  We thought it was impossible.  Well...after blessing us in October by paying off our renovation costs, God chose to pay off every bill (including a $9K lab invoice) to end the year and launch us into 2014 and we had enough cash in the bank to get us through the first quarter, which is typically one of the lowest donation periods.  What a blessing and encouragement our supporters have been!!!

4 additional providers in one month...WHAT!  In late February we were at the end of our rope concerning provider recruitment.  Then it hit us....this place has been built on prayer!  We sent out an email to all of our friends (over 500) that asked for prayer on the topic.  Almost immediately we got our answer! We received phone calls and we were even approached in the grocery store.  The new providers are just coming on board and our hope is that our 5 week wait will be reduced to 2.  (But we still need more.  Please pray that we will find the funding to employ 1 full time provider, which will change everything!)

Two great reminders that GOD HAS GOT THIS!
Impacts of the Quarter...The Affordable Care Act 
(from the desk of our Medical Director, Duane Furman) 

One of the founding principles of Katallasso has been to provide quality health care to the uninsured and underinsured of York County. Filling such an incredible need with people that are hurting physically and emotionally has allowed Katallasso to impact hundreds of lives over the past year. The need for such a unique and vital ministry as Katallasso has never been more evident than in the current health care crisis. Many thought the solution to the crisis was for the government to provide coverage for all through the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, as we have experienced with several of our patients recently, that is not nor will it be the solution. Let me share two stories of many that we have heard from our patients.
 
First, a middle aged woman with diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. She had been coming to the clinic for nearly four months and was receiving quality care at no cost to her because of a financial crisis through a divorce. Her high blood pressure was controlled, diabetes improving and cholesterol issues stable through the reduced cost of prescriptions through a local pharmacy. In our last conversation, she informed me she applied for coverage through the Affordable Care Act so she could assume some responsibility for her coverage. What she found was a not so affordable care program. She was quoted a monthly premium of $418 per month, a $5000 deductible, no pharmacy coverage and limited hospital coverage. Obviously, on a fixed and limited income she is not able to afford such a premium or even the outrageous deductible.
 
Secondly, an older woman with high blood pressure that has been managed well through the providers at Katallasso. She has a trust in the providers and feels comfortable with the quality of care she is receiving. She as well decided to apply for coverage.  Her premium,
$38 per month. Not a bad deal...but the deductible was $10,000, no hospitalization coverage, no pharmacy benefit and limited copays for doctor visits. After our discussion, she asked if she could just provide Katallasso with a $38 per month donation and continue coming to the clinic for her health care needs.
 
The only solution to the current health care needs are for continued organizations like Katallasso providing quality care to those in need by building relationships in an authentic and meaningful way. When we all decide in humility and a servants heart to come alongside those in need and help in any way we can, then the true needs of people will be met.

(typically in this section we highlight the story of a particular client who is being impacted by Katallasso.  The ACA is a topic that is on everyone's mind so we decided to share some stories)
 
 
Time for some learning...
During the months of January and February the weather wreaked havoc with our inaugural set of health related educational opportunities at Katallasso.  We offered Nutrition Links in cooperation with Penn State Extension and in cooperation with Wellspan Community Health we offered Smoking Cessation and A Healthier You.  Here you see Lori, our Certified Diabetes Educator teaching 1 class of a set of 3 on Diabetes Management.  We will be offering the same classes in the months of April and May.  These are open to everyone.  How about you??
How can you be part of Katallasso? 
 
1. PRAYER! PRAYER!PRAYER! 

2.We still have needs for volunteers.  As we increase the patient hours our needs grow.  What is your talent or expertise that Katallasso can use to impact the community? 

3. Financial support.  We cannot stop now.  Please consider partnering with Katallasso.

4.  Medical providers-  Are you one or might you approach someone you know?

5. PRAYER! PRAYER! PRAYER! 
                        (It's that important!)

***All of God's people must come together in order for this to be successful.  WILL YOU ANSWER THE CALL?

 
Brian's Bits
(this section has been created to give you a picture of where this vision came from and will be a recurring section until the story is told) 

As I told you in a previous edition, Kingdom Building and being a catalyst in bringing churches together in York County was one of the foundational principles at Katallasso.  We set ourselves up as an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit so that no one church would control the ministry and so that God would get the glory, not a particular congregation.  We aimed to do this across denominational lines.  In our last edition I described how we chose our contractor...and now the construction begins.  We put together a construction committee made up of experts in the general construction field since I didn't have a clue when it came to a project of this size.  Of the 5 on the committee, 3 churches were represented and 3 different companies.  God truly pulled together this committee of greyscale-drafting.jpg experts to comb through the design plans and to meet with our contractor.  Believe me, they speak a whole different language!  We ironed out some things and then we came to demolition day.  45 people from 9 different churches came out that Saturday and we filled a jam packed 40 yard dumpster(donated by Penn Waste).  Be sure to view the video on the left of demolition day.  I'll never forget tearing up as the youth group from Providence Presbyterian started the demolition on the Thursday before demolition day.  It was really happening!  The next Saturday we came back and did the framing of the walls.  Again, a volunteer crew of 48 from 11 different churches came out.  I would say about 30 of these folks do framing or construction for a living.  What a miracle!  The average do it yourselfer could not have done what was done on those two Saturdays.  Those two days saved us about $20K according to our contractor.  It was absolutely amazing and a spiritually emotional time watching the vision that God had laid out coming together in physical form.  He truly did have this ministry project under control!

Our mission is to emulate the love Jesus Christ by promoting wellness and providing quality healthcare for both the body and soul. In cooperation with the Church and others, Katallasso FHC will strive to reach beyond the health of the body for York City and surrounding communities.

 

Katallasso FHC: Reaching Beyond Healthcare 

 

Click here to check out a detailed description of our mission. 

 

Katallasso, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non profit corporation