HISTORY OF THE MISSION

When the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission opened in 1983, it had no building of its own. In those days, a Physician’s Assistant treated patients in a tiny room at the Sears Recreation Center. The trunk of his car served as the office, holding the medical records, medicine, and supplies.

The Mission had been the vision of several local leaders who formed the ministry’s first Board of Directors. Dr Fred White had arrived in Abilene in the early 1980s and recognized right away that according to Abilene’s 1980 census, more than 13,000 people fell through the cracks of government assistance and third party insurance.

This realization prompted White to approach a group of elders at First Central Presbyterian Church, who agreed to help him gather the resources to start the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission and offer a medical home to people who had little or no access to medical care.

Within the first six months of the Mission’s operation, the patient increase led the Mission to move to a facility on Pecan Street, and by 1989, the Mission was on the verge of another move. Support from the City of Abilene, Taylor, County, Hendrick Medical Center, the Humana Corporation, and many churches allowed the Mission to move to its current home atop the hill at 302 Medical Drive.

The Dental Clinic was added in 1999. At that time, service was available only to residents of Taylor County. Within a month, the waiting list topped 1,000. With an increase in staff and help from generous donors, the waiting list has since been eliminated, and the service area has been expanded. About 3,000 patients are treated at the Dental Clinic each year.

Today, both clinics of the Medical Care Mission serve a 22-county area in Texas that is about the size of Ohio. The records room holds files of about 45,000 medical patients, and that number increases by about 1,000 each year. That rising need corresponds to the fact that 47 million people in the United States go without health insurance. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation, with 24 percent.