Savie Health

Fictional detective Harry Bosch, the star of more than a dozen best-selling books by Michael Connelly and two TV series on Amazon Prime, operates with a credo he adopted early in his career: “Everybody counts, or nobody counts.” 

That’s basically the same philosophy behind Savie Health, the nonprofit free clinic in downtown Lompoc.

It’s the heart of Savie Health’s mission “to provide comprehensive, culturally inclusive healthcare to underserved communities, ensuring equitable access…”

To that end, Savie Health has been offering the uninsured members of the community high-quality proactive care that addresses potential health issues early, helping people with no other access to healthcare who often might otherwise neglect chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. The clinic’s array of services – from physical exams to diagnosis tests to medications and even nutritional and other counseling – are geared toward preventative treatment that can make a huge amount of difference at comparatively very small cost before an issue leads to severe complications, health crises and emergency room visits. 

“We treat high blood pressure, heart disease, pre-diabetes,” said Abe Lincoln, the nonprofit’s executive director. “We deal with depression, anxiety, obesity, anemia, all the things that can lead to much bigger problems if they are untreated. We try to provide as much as we can for people who have nowhere else to go.”

All of the medical services are provided absolutely free to the patients, a large percentage of whom are farm workers and other undocumented people. 

“We don’t have a billing system, or a cash register, or actually any means to collect money even if we wanted to,” said Lincoln. 

Lincoln, like the revered president who shares his name, isn’t afraid to speak openly, including on how the first few months of the current regime in Washington, D.C., have been such a trying time for Savie and its mission. 

“The Trump Administration has had a huge impact on us,” he said. “Our population is targeted right now. We work hard to gain the trust of the undocumented people we serve, and the increased fear of deportation is making getting medical care even more difficult.” 

Where Savie Health used to be able to help the undocumented sign up for Medi-Cal after California passed new legislation, there’s been a big drop-off in those willing to consider it. 

“People are very nervous. They don’t want to even consider signing up for Medi-Cal, so they can go down the street to a clinic that takes it,” he said. “And how can you blame them when we read that the federal government is using IRS records?”

Lincoln stressed that, just as they have no system for payment, there’s also no patient record collection. 

“We have never required documentation,” Lincoln said. “Our mission is to provide healthcare, not gather information.”

To that end, while Savie asks patients for their name to facilitate continuity of care, they don’t withhold treatment if a visitor refuses. 

“We see people to give them healthcare, and there’s no pressure or requirement if there’s any concern about documentation,” Lincoln said. “That’s always been our policy.”

The lack of paperwork – albeit in a different manner – is also part of what attracts excellent doctors to volunteer their services at Savie. The medical staff get to focus on helping people, which is the main reason most of them got into the profession in the first place. 

“They don’t have to find the medical codes for billing insurance, or learn a new piece of software,” Lincoln said. “They just get to practice medicine and take whatever time they need to care for people who really need it. It’s like the old MasterCard commercial: Priceless.” 

But of course, running a free clinic and administrative staff still has costs. The double whammy of the new presidential administration is that charitable contributions are on a downward spiral in the face of ping-ponging economic policies. 

“Individual donations have nearly dried up due to the vast uncertainty and turmoil of the last two to three months,” Lincoln said. “That makes people freeze and hold on to donations because their 401K might be half of what it was several days ago, and they don’t know what’s coming next. We’re not the only nonprofit that is feeling the squeeze. But we are a very small and local nonprofit in a small northern Santa Barbara county that isn’t the wealthiest serving a targeted population in a targeted sector of healthcare, and it will be nearly impossible to survive without individual donors.”

Lincoln said while Lompoc isn’t populated by a bunch of millionaires, it is the home for a lot of agriculture workers who not only produce a lot of the food eaten by county residents and people around the nation, but are also an integral part of the hospitality industry in Santa Barbara – servers, cleaners, maids who commute daily – “working class members in a hardworking city.” 

The irony is that the Savie Health clinic is located a stone’s throw from Vandenberg Space Force Base, where Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches numerous rockets each month.

“We have the richest man in the world firing off rockets in our backyard,” Lincoln said. “And the city itself is poor as hell. That’s why I’m not hesitant to say the things I’m saying. (At our clinic) our very existence is an act of resistance. We’re going to keep fighting and we’re not going to flinch.”

Flinch? Not when community members who find their way to Savie are so grateful for getting the healthcare they so desperately need that they often experience strong emotions after being seen by a doctor or getting other support. 

“The amount of relief that people feel when they get some medical help can be overwhelming,” said Lincoln, who has had patients hug him and shake his hand with tears in their eyes. “That’s partly why this work is so satisfying.” 

But Lincoln said the clinic desperately needs to figure out how to get to donors who share their values and believe in the mission enough to write checks. 

“Our founder says when you work in a nonprofit, you work in the business of karma. It comes back to you in ways that are unexpected and in their own time. But those things happen, and that’s what we kind of have to rely on. I know that isn’t necessarily a sound financial business plan, but that’s all gone out the window in the last few months anyway.” 

Maybe that karma comes from someone reading this column who wants to make a donation that makes a real tangible difference to people who have nowhere else to turn. 

“I really believe it’s about inspiration,” Lincoln said. “You’ve got to feel like you’re not just giving money, but you’re fighting a battle with us. And it’s true. It’s a real battle.”  

Visit https://saviehealth.org for more information