Staying Healthy: Healthcare in Monmouth
In Monmouth and the towns around it, there are limited health clinics and medical services. But that appears to be changing.
Those in the community who need medical care face not only a lack of services but a lack of healthcare workers. “There is a shortage even in medical providers,” the administrator of the Warren County Health Department, Jenna Link, said, “so when residents are not feeling well, they cannot get in to see their primary care physician. They have to utilize the emergency room when there really is not an emergency issue like a sore throat, earache, or a rash.”
People in lower income brackets struggle to find transportation to healthcare services. More specialized options for healthcare are located in Galesburg such as the OSF Behavioral and Mental Health.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 21 percent of US adults experienced mental illness in 2020. So since Monmouth had a population of 8,778 during the following year, that means that about 1,309 adults in Monmouth may have experienced mental illness. Those people would need to travel 25 minutes away to reach a mental health facility.
Monmouth does have a shuttle that runs Monday thru Friday going to each regional mental health care location once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. The shuttle costs $2 per trip for regular customers, $1 per trip for students, and $1.50 for disabled patrons.
The McDonough District Hospital in Macomb has been a spot Monmouth residents have traveled to in order to receive the healthcare they need. The Vice President of Clinical and Support Services, Adrian MacGregor, said that when the Hospital began analyzing its patients back three years ago, the board realized that it had at least 700 patients from the Monmouth area.
Just two years after they started collecting data, that number grew to over 1000 patients.
It was because of this discovery, that they decided that they needed to move some of their services closer to the people of Monmouth. “We don’t want to take away from the community,” MacGregor said. “We want to add to the services that are already there.”
Although the clinic cannot provide all the services that the hospital offers, they have provided some previously unavailable services in Monmouth. “Community members have been very appreciative of the OB/GYN services as well as ear, nose, and throat services,” said MacGregor. He added that their physical therapy services have also been quite popular.
The clinic, located off of Main Street, opened a convenience clinic for walk-in patients on Tuesday, December 6th. The MDH Monmouth Convenience Clinic is open Tuesday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Jacob Duncan, Lauren Peterson, Katie Preston