New Ocean Springs infusion clinic expands access to care for South Mississippi patients
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WXXV)-For many South Mississippians who depend on regular infusion treatments, accessing care can mean hours on the road.
Now, a new clinic in Ocean Springs is bringing those services closer to home.
WXXV News 25’s Brynne Baxley shows us how access to infusion care is expanding treatment options for local patients.
“We don’t want patients to be reminded all the time that they have a chronic illness and we want them comfortable while they’re getting their care whether they’re there for a 30-minute infusion or they’re there for a six-hour infusion.”
CEO of Access Infusion Care, Dr. Bruce Kutinsky, says their mission is to provide infusion services in rural and underserved locations.
By bringing treatment options closer to home, he says patients can avoid the physical and financial burden of traveling long distances for care. “And not only is that a toll on patients who are driving long distance, just physically the toll of patients that are chronically ill, but imagine the cost of all the miles that you have to drive to these locations that are further from you. And so, their caregivers now, the nurses are living in the community with them. They might see them when they go to the store. They might see them when they when they’re going out to dinner.”
The infusion therapies offered at the new clinic help treat patients with autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders, and a variety of other chronic conditions.
Mississippi Vice President of Health Care Medical Infusion Specialties, Kristi Walker, says the impact has been overwhelming. “You know they’d come in in a wheel chair and then after a few therapies, they’re up vertical, they’re walking again, they’re attending school, they’re going back to work, and so the therapies that they receive makes a dramatic impact on their life.”
Walker says the organization is also expanding access through home infusion services. “One thing that we also provide is home infusions, which also helps serve our rural communities here in Mississippi, or patients that have problems with transportation or getting to us, we can actually go to them.”
