NILES — A free health clinic that will serve those without health insurance is coming to Niles.

HERBIE Health Clinic will open June 9, at Wesley United Methodist Church, 302 Cedar St. after nearly nine years of serving patients from its home base at the Salvation Army, 233 Michigan St. in Benton Harbor. The clinic will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of the month. Patients can receive routine medical care, some labs run on site and medications.

The clinic is run by Sherry O’Donnell, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, who operates her own practice called Rappha Medical Center in St. Joseph.

O’Donnell said she was inspired to open the clinic when she noticed a trend among her patients about nine years ago: many of them were losing their health insurance, either because of increasing deductible payments or a cancelled provider all together. Either way, O’Donnell’s patients were winding up with nowhere to turn for medical care. She approximated that between 5 to 7 percent of her patients were being impacted by this trend.

“It was like, ‘these people still need health care. What do we do?’” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell and her former practice administrator, Sandi Lemley, felt that they had to do something about it. O’Donnell said their faith in God also motivated them to open the clinic and serve people in need.

Together they started the clinic, naming it after Herb Atkinson, a missionary doctor who helped people in the Congo and later returned to join Southwestern Medical Clinic.

While Lemley has since moved away, O’Donnell continues to run the clinic as the medical director. Volunteers from local colleges and other area medical facilities donate their time to treat patients who visit the clinic.

Since opening their doors, the clinic has filled a local need. Serving on average between 120 to 140 patients on the Saturdays that they are open.

To use the clinic, patients simply need to show up. Patients are treated on a first come first basis. They are asked to bring a photo identification and they must have a permanent address. Anyone without health insurance can be treated at the clinic. The clinic will not treat children under 16, because O’Donnell said there is state aid available for those services.   

The clinic is funded through donations. Many local organizations, such as United Federal Credit Union and Lake Michigan College, have donated to the cause, in addition to local fundraisers. There’s also a donation basket in the clinic office, where patients are welcome to donate if they wish.

As for the decision to move to Niles, O’Donnell said they determined that there was a need to serve patients in the area.

“What we realized is that there is outreach after outreach in the Benton Harbor area and it just seems like Niles is kind of the red-headed stepchild,” O’Donnell said. “We opted to fish in deeper waters and see what the Niles area needed.”

The timing was also ideal, because the Salvation Army announced that they were growing and would need the space where the clinic was operating for their church services. She thanked the Salvation Army for providing them the space to do their work for nine years.

Patients were notified of the move and O’Donnell said they seemed complaint with the change.

Starting in early June, O’Donnell will begin moving equipment from their Salvation Army location to the Wesley United Methodist Church, where some rooms on the upstairs floor will be converted to house the clinic.

“It felt right, like you know what, we are going to serve more people,” O’Donnell said. “Several things were just really aligning and we felt like that was the direction where the Lord wanted us to go.”

The clinic is always looking for volunteers to assist. Those interested can contact Delisa Purchase, the volunteer coordinator, at (269) 313-0443 or via email at delisapurchase@icloud.com. For more information about HERBIE Health Clinic visit: herbieclinic.com.