Shiners Outreach Clinic kicks off

Coast families who rely on Shriners Hospitals for Children for treatment and care can now get care closer to home.

Members of the Singing River Health System and Joppa Shriners on the Gulf Coast kicked off a new outreach clinic at the Singing River Medical Clinic in Ocean Springs on Saturday.

Shriners’ medical staff will come to the clinic at regular intervals and will offer outpatient services, radiology exams, and follow-up assessments which will help families who may ordinarily have to make the long trip to the Shiners Hospital in Shreveport. Joppa Shriners Potentate Jeff Guice said, “A lot of patients have to make multiple trips as many as eight trips a year and that’s from the Gulf Coast, that’s a six to eight hour drive. In our close area, we had children who were excited that they only had to drive about an hour and a half to see the physician.”

Ocean Springs Hospital Administrator Heath Thompson said, “And for us to be able to collaborate with Shriners and have this as an outreach clinic access point for those patients in the region, it is amazing.”