By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
The Community Care Clinic of Rowan County has received a $40,000 grant through the fourth phase of funding for the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund’s Medication Assistance Program.
This puts the total amount of funding from the Trust Fund to the Community Care Clinic over the course of six years at $430,000.
Connie Antosek, executive director of the Community Care Clinic, said the latest grant will allow the pharmacy program to continue dispensing free medication to uninsured, low-income residents. The clinic’s pharmacy and pharmacy technician counsel prescription recipients on proper usage and possible side effects, she said.
In 2007, Antosek said, the pharmacy program filled 4,507 prescriptions. Counting the one-time emergency fills for patients would increase the number to more than 5,000, she said.
Some of the prescription recipients are patients of doctors at the clinic, she said, while others continue to see their own physicians but go to the clinic for prescriptions because they can’t afford the cost.
Antosek said 75 percent of prescription recipients suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes or hypertension.
The Community Care Clinic, located at 315-G Mocksville Ave., was founded in 1996 by Rowan Regional Medical Center in an effort to provide health care to a qualifying segment of needy residents.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.