PITTSBURG — Drs. Glen Singer and Brian Wolfe were given the evening’s highest honor Saturday night at the annual awards banquet of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas.
The physicians joined the CHC/SEK in August, 2013, after having been in private practice together since 1983. The switch allows them to keep seeing their regular patients as well as those who typically don’t have the resources to visit a physician.
Krista Postai, executive director of the CHC/SEK, presented the award, called the Sheridan Award, named after Mother Mary Bernard Sheridan who built the first hospital in Crawford County to provide care to the miners and their families regardless of their ability to pay. She started the first pre-paid insurance plan in Kansas, charging 25 cents a month for all procedures and visits.
The CHC/SEK headquarters is on the site of that first hospital and has grown into the largest safety net primary care clinic in the state.
Postai said the award honors those who “dug the well,” in their service to the underserved.
“Tonight, we honor two individuals who dug their own well and then invited us to drink from it. … Together, Drs. Singer and Wolfe have forever changed Allen County.”
Over the past year the CHC/SEK has witnessed a 29 percent growth in patients. It has a staff of 199 at five sites, including Iola, Pittsburg, Coffeyville, Baxter Springs and Cherryvale for both dental and medical needs.
The Community Health Center is a federally qualified health center, meaning it receives a large share of its reimbursements from the federal government.
Dr. Arthur Unruh heads the CHC’s dental clinic in Iola.
