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Fran
Nelson, C-FNP, Ph.D.
Owner, Director and FNP Care Provider
Nelson Family Clinic, LLC , Hilbert, WI |
I'm Fran
Nelson. I direct a Rural Health Clinic in rural Wisconsin.
The clinic opened in August of 1997 after one year of planning
and preparation. I explored available sites in 4 small towns
without physician services in a specific rural county. This
county is underserved so it qualified for a Rural Health Clinic
Certification. One of the small towns was planning a new office
complex and had no prospective tenants. Working with the local
sponsor of this project, I designed the clinic and enjoyed
receiving sponsorship from the builder to assist with rental
costs in the first year. When we opened, I had one employee
and a consulting physician who is required to come in and
review cases at least every two weeks and to provide telephone
consult when needed. The consulting physician happens to be
my brother-in-law who practices in a town 30 miles outside
our service area. I hire him by the hour to provide the consulting
service.
Today the clinic
has me as the full-time nurse practitioner, my husband, Pete
Kordiyak as the once a week physician assistant, a full time
massage therapist who rents space from us and also uses our
billing system for her occupational therapy clients. A cardiologist
sees clients every two weeks, a psychotherapist sees clients
in our Outpatient Mental Health Clinic two days a week, and
another masters level therapist and Certified Alcohol and
Drug Counselor III (CADC III) provides individual therapy
in our outpatient Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) certified
program. We also have an endocrinology nurse practitioner
and a certified diabetic nurse educator providing care in
our clinical diabetes program. I have written grants to local
foundations to start the AODA, Diabetes, and our new Alzheimer’s
Memory Clinic which will begin in October 2002. These extra
service programs fill gaps in care in this rural location
and provide access to specialists collaboratively.
I
see from 10-18 clients daily of all ages. I draw all my
own lab work and do EKG’s, etc without a nurse or
medical assistant. I am on call whenever the clinic is
closed but am never called out at night and see clients
in the clinic when necessary. I manage all of the business
of the clinic and do payroll and personnel. We bill Medicare
A and B, and are working on billing electronically. We
have a state grant to provide family planning services
and STD screening for the county. We are also part of
the immunization registry for the state and receive vaccines
from them.
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