Champions of Health Care
In our third annual edition of Champions of Health Care, Edge magazine received nearly 200 recommendations from the public about health care providers, administrators and volunteers who are making health care better in Chattanooga.From among those nominations, a panel of judges comprised of top leaders from the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Medical Society and each of Chattanooga's three major hospital systems - Erlanger Health System, CHI Memorial Hospital and Parkridge Health System - picked nine winners in eight different classifications of health care.The Champions of Health Care award winners this year have tackled major community health problems, started or promoted programs to better coordinate care and expanded initiatives for wellness and disease detection. Others are recognized for new approaches, strong leadership and simple acts of kindness during their lifetimes of achievement and service. In a variety of volunteer and professional roles across many of Chattanooga's major health care institutions, the honorees have distinguished themselves and the community for improving the health of individuals and Chattanooga as a whole.This year's Champions of Health Care will be honored at an awards luncheon at The Chattanoogan on Wednesday, September 5.
Dr. Kelly Rodney Arnold's Italian grandfather, Rocco, came to the United States as a young immigrant child who didn't speak a word of English.
So whenever Rodney Arnold hears the stories of her non-English speaking patients at Clinica Medicos, she says it makes her even more proud of her grandfather for overcoming some of the barriers in his way.
The fourth-generation, bilingual physician said the decision to open Clinica Medicos to serve the city's Latino population was equally fueled by passion and naivety. Sitting at the break room table in the 6,500-square-foot clinic on east 23rd Street, the 40-year-old, mother of three glanced up at the calendars on the wall that showed a daily tally of patients since that very first day more than three years ago.
Community Outreach Award
Honors a company or organization that reached out of its normal sphere of operation to focus attention on a health care issue or helped to solve a community health problem.Accomplishments: Rodney Arnold is the founder and medical director at Clinca Medicos, which is a clinic dedicated to serving the underserved Latino community in Chattanooga, and the chairwoman of La Paz, which is an organization that advocates for the Latino community. Rodney Arnold is also part of the faculty at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga and Department of Family Medicine. Most recently, she was awarded the “Degree of Fellow” by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
When Rodney Arnold and her partners opened Clinica Medicos on March 1, 2015, they had one patient walk through the door that day. Now, the clinic sees roughly 1,200 patients a month, has delivered about 500 babies and grown to a staff of 25.
"When we first started it, you don't think it's anything that's going to gain praise," she says. "You are just guided by believing it's the right thing to do. And come success or failure, you know that you took care of human beings that needed it."
With the county's Hispanic population expected to grow to more than 15 percent, or 40,000 residents, by 2020, Rodney Arnold said she and her partners opened Clinica Medicos with a "sense of urgency." The clinic was built on the belief that a more transparent, accessible community clinic for the underserved population was something Chattanooga needed as soon as possible.
Scattered throughout the walls of the clinic are colorful fabrics that Rodney Arnold collected during her travels in Latin America while doing mission work. The textile arts were all Rodney Arnold could afford as a student and they now help bring the walls of her now successful venture to life.
Clinica Medicos is modeled after Rodney Arnold's family's clinic in Memphis that started out serving a mostly Hispanic population 20 years ago. Rodney Arnold attended the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis and moved to Chattanooga after school with her husband, Dr. Justin Arnold, a third-generation surgeon and native Chattanoogan.
"Viewing their success in it gave me much more confidence to venture into something that is so risky," says Rodney Arnold about Clinica Medicos' sister clinic. "For me, the pain of not fulfilling that vision I knew would be much more painful [than] having done it and failed."
Everyone on staff at Clinica Medicos speaks Spanish, which makes patients feel more respected and heard, Rodney Arnold said. The clinic is also open seven days a week for those that work during the day and can't adjust their own schedules to fit the traditional 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. model that most doctor offices operate under. Perhaps the most important and unique aspect of the clinic is that they are as upfront about prices as they can be - reducing many of the expensive health care and imaging costs for patients that can't afford it.
Incorporating all of these things and more, Rodney Arnold said it has helped them reach a traditionally underserved population. While Clinica Medicos is a for-profit business, Rodney Arnold said the clinic is a "hybrid" nonprofit that can provide services to patients at little to no cost if they can't afford it.
"What has been inspiring is that so many of our patients here feel a level of comfort and security," she says. "It almost erases everything on the outside because they come here and feel at home."
Rodney Arnold said a big part of the clinic's outreach is done through teaching, as well. On faculty at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga, Rodney Arnold has a chance to share Clinica Medicos' model and the mission of urban medicine for underserved populations with the next generation of physicians. Just recently, Clinica Medicos privately raised funds to host a fellow who will learn more about how to carry out the Clinca Medicos' mission.
Anne Campbell, an X-ray technician at Erlanger's UT Family Practice, has known Rodney Arnold for 10 years and said that during her residency, attending physicians used to refer to Rodney Arnold as one of the best residents they ever had.
Campbell said she's impressed how she manages to do everything while still rearing three kids - ages 10, 8 and 6.
"How she does it, I have no idea," Campbell says. "I have found her to be a remarkable young woman."
Rodney Arnold said she hopes her daughter and two sons will one day follow in her and her husband's footsteps, but she also said she doesn't want to push them in any one direction.
"The spiritual revenue you get from taking care of people – whatever that looks like, whether you are in social work or a legal advocate – I think that's what I advocate more for than a specific profession," she says. "I care more if they understand how to treat people kindly and fairly."