A nonprofit chain of five medical clinics serving Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods got a boost this week from the Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Development Board.
The board approved an inducement agreement to issue industrial revenue bonds so Christ Community Health Services can refinance at a lower interest rate on a $2.5 million construction loan.
The industrial board is expected to give final approval next month.
Christ Community will use the savings to keep establishing more clinics to meet a severe demand for medical care among the poor, clinic officials told the board.
The 14-year-old organization borrowed money to adapt a former drugstore for its administrative headquarters at 2595 Central, next to the Fairgrounds.
First Tennessee will purchase the industrial bonds and provide “favorable” interest rates to the organization, officials said.
Christ Community serves 45,000 patients and will perform 150,000 “health care encounters” this year, CFO Jim Smith told the board.
Still, Christ Community must turn away 150 patients a day. “We don’t have the facilities to serve them. It is a very demanding practice of medicine,” Smith said.
“The interest savings will help us put that money back into health care.”
The organization’s goal is to double its size over the next five years, enrolling 100,000 patients.
Two more clinics will soon be added, he said, one in South Memphis and the other in Frayser.
— Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388
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