- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with a healthcare leader making a difference.

Dr. Jubril Oyeyemi is Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Cherry Hill Free Clinic.

Their website will be up so you can find out more.

Doctor, so good to have you with us.

- Thanks for having me, Steve, appreciate it.

- You got it.

Doctor, share with everyone what the Cherry Hill Free Clinic is, A, and B, who you serve every day.

- Absolutely, so the Cherry Hill Free Clinic, the mission is simple, primary care for the uninsured.

So if you think about about what it costs per county, what it costs you to sort of survive, you'll find that in different counties, especially around Camden County where where we're located, it's something like for a family of four, you have to make about 70 to 80, 77,000 to be specific, right?

And so you look around and you realize that, man, how many people around you actually make that amount of money?

And so what the Cherry Hill Free Clinic does is it provides medical care to provide space where folks who can't afford health insurance, who don't have jobs that offer health insurance, who don't qualify for, who aren't poor enough for Medicaid, and aren't old enough for Medicare, who are sort of stuck in the middle, and what we do is a group of volunteer clinicians, about 60 or so between doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and PAs sort of volunteer your time so that folks in the community who don't have access to health insurance, and can't afford to see a primary care doctor can have a place to come to, and we've done that for the last six years now to the tune of thousands of visits.

Just wanted to acknowledge, with Dr. Oyeyemi and the work they're doing at Cherry Hill Free Clinic, that one of their underwriters is one of ours.

The Horizon Foundation also underwrites the important work going on at the clinic.

- You know, first of all, people say this to people who serve in the military often, and it's appropriate, but we should also say it particularly to people in the world of healthcare, especially three years plus into the pandemic.

Thank you for your service and the difference you're making, doctor, but I'm curious about something.

We are a not-for-profit production company, and we spend a lot of our time, beyond our broadcasting work and producing programming, raising money.

Now, you're a not-for-profit, and the healthcare community is struggling, hospitals are struggling to make ends meet financially.

How do you do that?

- So you know, that's a very good question, Steve, and it's interesting, because of all the operational challenges to provide healthcare at no cost to people who need it, right?

Of all the challenges we have as a free clinic, recruiting the doctors, the nurses, the nurse practitioners is actually not one of those.

I mean, it's incredible, you talk to, you know, the doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, right?

Almost every single one of 'em I know, it's why they went into medicine, nursing, to care for folks who don't have the means, right?

And so almost everyone I talk to across all the hospitals, so you know, our volunteers come from VirtualHealth, Cooper Health, AtlantiCare, Jefferson, and some from up north as well, right?

And almost everyone you talk to who hears about the mission goes, "You know what?

I wanna be a part of that," right?

- Right.

- And they might have capacity for it, but being sold on the mission is not something difficult, because you see it as a healthcare provider, you know, you see it all the time, folks coming to the emergency room with a second heart attack, with a second stroke, and when you get down to the bottom of why they're there, it's because some sort of life change happens, something happened, and that led to not having health insurance, and they couldn't afford to see their primary care doctor, couldn't afford to get $4 medications, and now they're having a second heart attack.

And so your heart just breaks for those folks, so you know, we took it upon, a group of us came together and said, "You know what?

We need to do this," and I'm just so incredibly proud of that team because we've served just thousands of neighbors who otherwise would've suffered.

- Doctor, to all those physicians, to all those nurses, to all those physician assistants, to all those clinicians, again, it's extraordinary service.

You didn't say that's easy.

You said that's not the hardest part.

And my question really, it goes back to the question of money, because the classic expression in the not-for-profit business, and I've said it a million times, I'm sorry if our audience is tired of hearing it, but when you're in public broadcasting, connected, affiliated, no money, no mission.

You could have all the greatest ideas in the world, you can wanna make a difference in the community, you could wanna do good programming, you could want to provide quality healthcare for people who don't have insurance, but you spend a lot of your time raising money.

- True, true, you're so right about that, and so you know, it's interesting, 'cause it's about 130 plus volunteers.

Half of those are clinicians, the other half are non-clinicians, and so like, our grants team for example, our sort of major sponsors team who go out and do the non-clinical work to support the mission of the Cherry Hill Free Clinic cannot thank those folks enough.

But also Steve, you know, the community, the health systems that support our work, VirtualHealth, the religious centers, for example, the Muslim community here in South Jersey that gives us the space for free, you know- - Right.

- Those are invaluable resources that help us do what we do, and then there's thousands of donors in the community who- You know what really gets me, Steve?

Sometimes I'm seeing a patient there in the clinic who at checkout is going, "I can't believe this is free.

I just can't believe it," and that patient is going, "You know, I wanna give something, here's my $5," and I'm going, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You keep that $5, you need that."

- One second, doctor, the patients and their families are giving?

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

It just floors you every time that happens, and that happens quite a lot, and these are folks who are often struggling with other, you know, food insecurity, housing insecurity.

I'm like, "No, no, no, you keep that," you know?

But it's just such a remarkable mission, and the community just supports it in such a way that just melts your heart.

- I'm sorry for interrupting, doctor.

I'm curious about something.

You could be making a lot of money, you know, as a physician in private practice.

I'm not saying it's easy, but you could go a different, you could have gone a different way here.

From a very personal perspective, why did you choose to do this?

- So Steve, I'll say it's the reason I actually pursued medicine in the first place.

As a young kid growing up in Nigeria, before coming here for college and then med school, the reason I went into medicine is 'cause I saw what lack of healthcare to folks who can't afford it, what that looks like.

And so fast forward 20 years later, I came to the US, you know, greatest country in the world, right?

And I realized that the same struggles, the same reason for which I went into medicine some decades ago, I'm seeing that right here, my neighbors right here who don't have access to care.

And so that drive, Steve, that drive, you know, when the clinic first opened, I had a full-time job Monday through Friday.

I was working on the weekends.

So I would round in the hospital, I would start in the hospital at 5:00 a.m. so that I can be at the clinic by 8:00 a.m., because I knew that there was a waiting room full of folks who were uninsured waiting to be seen.

And so thankfully, I don't have to do that anymore, because it's 60 plus clinicians who, and get this, the clinic is open almost every day of the month.

I mean, I say the emergency room is the only place probably open more times than we are, because folks in the community need that service.

And so yeah, Steve, that drive, that's why I went into medicine.

It's to care for folks who otherwise wouldn't have access to that care.

- To be clear, and the website has been up for the Cherry Hill Free Clinic, and again, we are based up in North Jersey, but our responsibility is to the entire state, the region, but primarily New Jersey.

I wanna be clear here, some of the services, adult primary care, chronic disease management, wellness exams, preventive care for the uninsured, folks who are struggling to get the quality, accessible, affordable child, not childcare, I'm thinking our childcare series, but healthcare, for so many of us, we take it for granted.

Dr. Oyeyemi, I cannot thank you enough for joining us.

And also the other thing is if you wanna go on the website, find out how you can make a difference, how you can be helpful.

We're not gonna turn this into a fundraiser for the Cherry Hill Free Clinic, but make a difference.

You know, we take it for granted too often what we have.

Thank you, all the best, Jubril, we appreciate it.

- Thank you, sir, appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PNC, Grow Up Great.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

PSC.

Where your story is our business.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Johnson & Johnson.

And by the Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided byROI-NJ.

And by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

- (Narrator) New Jersey is home to the best public schools in the nation, and that didn't happen by accident.

It's the result of parents, educators and communities working together year after year to give our students a world class education.

No matter the challenge, because parents and educators know that with a shared commitment to our public schools, our children can learn, grow and thrive.

And together, we can keep New Jersey's public schools the best in the nation.