The Tift Community Health Center on South Central will almost double in size if voters approve the renewal of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum March 21. One of the items on the SPLOST referendum is $500,000 for the center’s expansion.

“We need more space because the practice has gotten so large,” said Director Tom Kraemer. “We need more exam rooms and all the other things that go along with the growth of the building and the process of treating people.”

Kraemer, a physician’s assistant, said the community at large benefits from having the center because the approximately 600 people who visit it for treatment each week aren’t visiting Tift Regional Medical Center’s emergency room.

Anyone who is 18 years old or older who doesn’t have other sources of health care and no established primary care physician can make an appointment and see one of the physicians for evaluation and treatment.

“Actually, the return on the investment that taxpayers make is great,” Kraemer said. “It would only take a few admissions through the hospital’s emergency room to make that $500,000.”

The center takes patients by appointment, and the primary purpose of the center is to control chronic health issues such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.

“If our established patients get acutely sick, we’ll take care of that, but it isn’t a walk-in clinic,” Kraemer said.

Dr. Brent Savelli works at the center one afternoon a week and Dr. Henry Richbourg sees patients there one full day a week. Diane Patrick, vice president of TRMC’s Patient Care department, said that TRMC is currently recruiting a physician to work full-time at the center.

Tift Regional Medical Center first occupied the 3,000-square-foot, county-owned building in November 1999. According to Patrick, the hospital funds the salaries of the people who work at the center and pays for all the supplies they use.

“We just need to accommodate the needs there,” Patrick said. “We have such a growing need down there.”

Patrick said that people from any county who qualify are served at the center, but the staff makes an attempt to connect them with resources and services offered in their home counties.

“We get people from all over the county and we have people who come from other counties, but we feel like our first obligation is to the citizens of Tift County,” Patrick said.

If voters approve the SPLOST IV referendum, it will take effect on Jan. 1, 2007. The five-year SPLOST III, which expires at the end of this year, was expected to bring the county $40 million in tax revenue. SPLOST IV, which is proposed for six years, is expected to bring in more than $60 million in revenue.

The Citizens for Progress IV Committee will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Monday at the Tifton Fire Department’s Station 1 at 403 Forrest Ave. The committee will offer its endorsement of the current SPLOST IV campaign. Earl Denham, president of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce, will also separately host a program with community leaders.



To contact city editor Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.