Free medical clinic opens in Briceville; available Tuesdays
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Cutting the ribbon to open the new Free Medical Clinic in Briceville on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 8) are, from left, Angela Richardson, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, Karen Wilkin, Naomi Asher, Clinton Baptist Association President Keith Pierce, and David Coffee. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Billy Edmonds, left, executive director of the Free Medical Clinics, visits with Family Nurse Practicioner Gary Bickford in an exam room at the Briceville clinic. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Amanda Brackett and Naomi Asher show off the “virtual cart” at the Free Medical Clinic in Briceville, which will allow virtual consultations by doctors with the patients. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Melissa and Lucy Ramsey serve up pieces of cake for guests at the open house and ribbon-cutting event at the Free Medical Clinic in Briceville on Sunday. - G. Chambers Williams III
A new free medical clinic for people without insurance opened this week in Briceville, in a building where a clinic previously operated for several years before closing when the doctor there retired.
The Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge, which already operates facilities there and in Harriman, also will be running the Briceville clinic, at 1456 Briceville Highway (Tennessee Route 116) across from Briceville Elementary School.
Briceville clinic hours will be 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays only. But the two other clinics are open more days of the week. The Oak Ridge location is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while the Harriman clinic operates 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Free medical care is available to anyone without health insurance, whose annual income does not exceed $24,800, the clinic’s managers said. The clinic is open to residents of Anderson, Morgan and Roane counties.
The clinic’s operators held an open house and ribbon cutting this past Sunday afternoon at the Briceville clinic, with some government officials on hand for the event – including Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally.
Briceville clinic manager Gary Bickford was one of the facility’s staff on hand to give tours on Sunday, and said the goal of the clinic is to “see that everybody has access to health care.”
“We can even get eyeglasses for people at no charge,” Bickford said.
Nurse Practitioner Scott Shafer also will be seeing patients at the Briceville clinic on a volunteer basis, he said.
Patients will never receive a bill for the clinic’s services, said Bickford, who is a nurse practitioner. He said estimates show that about 14,000 people living in the three counties are eligible for the free primary-care medical services.
The building is being provided to the clinic for no charge by its owner, the Clinton Baptist Association, said Keith Pierce, president of the association, who was on hand for the open house and ribbon cutting.
Billy Edmonds, executive director of the Free Medical Clinic, said Dr. Tom Kim came to offer his services at the same Briceville facility “for years’ before he had to retire about two years ago for health reasons.
Another doctor had practiced in the building for several years before that, he said.
For more information about the free clinic or to make an appointment, visit the website fmcor.org, or call 865-338-5900.