Most things that seem too good to be true are, indeed, too good to be true. When you run into an organization that has stepped up to provide woefully needed medical services at no cost to an underserved population, helping thousands who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the healthcare delivery system in this country and this county, the natural reaction is to look for the catch.
With the Neighborhood Health Clinic in Naples, there is no catch. Instead, there is a carefully thought-through concept for how to utilize volunteer services to help Collier County residents who are working but barely getting by, don’t have health insurance, and don’t qualify for government assistance. And helming the organization is a woman who has brought rigorous business practices to complement the comprehensive delivery of medical services.
Leslie Lascheid, CEO of the Neighborhood Health Clinic, has been close to the operation since it began in 1999. You could say it’s “all in the family” — the clinic was founded by her father, the late Dr. William Lascheid, a longtime Naples dermatologist, and her mother Nancy Lascheid, a registered nurse. The nonprofit aims to plug the holes in the safety net and provide medical care for those who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
But as her parents’ retirement passion project took off and grew, Leslie was on a different path. She graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a degree in international law from Carnegie-Mellon. She worked for Sunoco, and for a global venture capital firm, Vespar Capital Partners, and headed up a consulting firm working with medical device companies. Her career focused on management, both of people and the bottom line. She developed broad-based experience in business finance, manufacturing, operations, and employment law management, along with developing talent management programs including succession planning, training, development and retention.
When the board of directors at the Neighborhood Health Clinic sought her business expertise, Leslie was initially hesitant, but agreed to help on a part-time basis. Soon she was commuting from her office in Mannheim, Germany, one week per month, working to ensure the clinic was on a sound business footing, and managing what became a major expansion.
“We needed to go to the next level,” her mother, Nancy Lascheid, remembers. “We hadn’t anticipated anything of this magnitude. Business, law, HR, finance — Leslie came with all of this.”
After conducting a search for a CEO and considering outside candidates, the board offered Leslie the position, and she came back into the “family business” full time. While William Lascheid died in 2014, Nancy Lascheid still works daily from her office in the clinic.
Leslie says that after health issues some in her own family have had, she understands the frustration of patients trying to navigate the health-care system, and the value of making it easy, particularly for those who don’t have the wherewithal or time off from work to devote to their medical wellbeing.
“This was my father’s dream,” she says, “that a patient could come, take off work one time, and have all the services they need, and not have to drive all over.” Many of the clinic’s clientele don’t even have vehicles, she adds.
Their patients also don’t have the resources to pay for continuing care and medications, and many would never return for follow-up visits or keep taking prescriptions if they had to pay out-of-pocket. So, the Neighborhood Health Clinic gives it all to them at no charge. Their patient group includes people from 43 different countries.
The clinic provides a wide-ranging palette of medical and dental care to low income, working but uninsured Collier County adults using a volunteer professional staff. They have leveraged the expertise and generosity of the local medical community, utilizing the talents of approximately 250 physicians, 50 dentists, 100 nurses, and 300 non-medical personnel, all donating their services and skills.
Patients are evaluated by physicians — all with current medical credentials — in fields including cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, endocrinology, gynecology, hepatology, neurology, otolaryngology, rheumatology, and urology, in addition to general practitioners. The clinic provides both over-the-counter and prescription medications, which they obtain at discounted rates.
“Last year, $6 million dollars in meds went out of here — everything up to hepatitis medications costing thousands, down to aspirin, cough syrup, everything,” Leslie Lascheid says of their services. “If we don’t give it to them, they won’t get it. We don’t write any prescriptions,” for outside providers.
For all these services, which can range from a dental filling up to open heart surgery, patients pay nothing, zero, nada. In past years, the clinic asked for a $20 contribution per month, “but this year, we have accepted no contributions,” Leslie adds, noting the additional stress the past year of pandemic-related issues has added onto their already struggling patients. And even as medical offices shut down across the region, the Neighborhood Health Clinic has stayed open every day throughout the year.
Collier County is the only county in Florida that provides no funding for general medical services, apart from pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis care. But the clinic receives no government funding of any kind, with the bills paid instead through the generosity of local residents. This enables them to remain independent, base their operations entirely on what will be beneficial for the patients, and act quickly when necessary, Nancy Lascheid explains of Neighborhood Health Clinic.
“Leslie can make a decision, send an email, and get it done that afternoon,” Nancy continues. As a case in point, when the clinic’s arrangement to obtain medical imaging services abruptly fell through, she looked at purchasing the necessary but expensive equipment in-house.
“It was $1.475 million. I was sick thinking about it,” Leslie says. Then came a bequest from a former patient of Dr. Lascheid’s in the same amount, almost to the dollar. “It was a check in my hand for $1,475,000,” and in short order, the clinic added imaging to their repertoire.
“Collier County should be eternally grateful to the Lascheids, taking a dream and bringing it to fruition,” Linda Penniman offers. A former Naples City Councilor, Linda has served on the Neighborhood Health Clinic board. “Our quality of life depends on people in the service industries, and the clinic keeps these people healthy.”
Linda also extolled Leslie’s contributions. “Leslie adds business acumen that is necessary to be sure the monies go to programs. We know the funds we give are being used to help people. They run a lean machine.”
Clinic operators from all over the country have worked from the model of Naples’ Neighborhood Health Clinic, seeking to emulate its success. And the charitable rating organizations have weighed in as well. The 501(c)3 is a recipient of Guidestar’s 2019 Platinum Seal of Transparency, and a top four-star rating from Charity Navigator for six years in a row. Ninety percent of every dollar raised goes directly to patient services.
The clinic is expanding once again, in the midst of a $12.8 million capital campaign, which has already garnered $11 million in donations and pledges. To learn more about the Neighborhood Health Clinic, or donate to them, go online to http://www.neighborhoodhealthclinic.org/.