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Chase Brexton opens its doors to wider community

(The Examiner, K. Hille) -- BALTIMORE - The Chase Brexton clinic in downtown Baltimore developed a reputation for caring for AIDS patients for nearly 30 years, even before they had the understanding or sympathy of the nation. Not so many people know they now offer community clinic services to anyone, regardless of AIDS status or ability to pay.

Chase Brexton opened its second facility in Randallstown in 1999 and a third in Columbia last month. They offer comprehensive AIDS care, preventive medicine and a network of visiting specialists, as well as in-house pharmacies and drug addiction and treatment services. Health care is priced on a sliding scale, based on patient's ability to pay. "Clearly, we're into a lot different territory than we were a long time ago," Chase Brexton CEO David Shippee said. "The thing that still pays is compassion. People seek us out based on our reputation."

By 2011, Chase Brexton Health Services will be "a nationally recognized center of excellence for community health services," according to its Web site. Future developments include moving into research and providing team-based care, the site states.

"It's great that they're doing it," said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition. "There are other companies offering care to the uninsured, but they are the leaders."

Chase Brexton has its work cut out for it, according to the coalition's estimates. More than 800,000 adults in the state lack insurance and more than 90,000 children are eligible for free state-sponsored health care are not enrolled.

Shippee shared the private, nonprofit clinic's history.

"A lot of the patients we had been seeing with the HIV disease, nearly every one of them, by the time they finished their course of care with us - which usually meant they died - had somebody in their life who accompanied them here," Shippee said. "We usually had a much closer relationship with the caregiver than even with the patient by that time."

Many of Chase Brexton Health Services patients in their '80s and even early '90s lost much of their ability to function before AIDS claimed them. Chase Brexton began expanding their services to include mental health care, counseling and addictions services for the caregivers as well as patients. Many of these companions ended up being HIV positive as well, Shippee said. Many were uninsured, and in 1995, Chase Brexton expanded their services to all people.

Working through a combination of grants and charity, Chase Brexton relied heavily on doctors volunteering for the challenge of treating complex cases and offering crisis care to those who could not afford the stabilizing routine care of the insured. Since its founding, Chase Brexton has gradually increased the number of paid staff, allowing them greater freedom to expand coverage and set their own agenda, Shippee said.