CEDAR RAPIDS — When Cedar Rapids ophthalmologist Dr. David Muller decided to give back to those in need, he knew he didn’t need to travel to another country or another state to find folks who could use some help.
The people in need were right in the Tipton native’s backyard around Eastern Iowa. In fact, they were already showing up for help at the Community Health Free Clinic.
In 2006, Muller and his wife, certified ophthalmic assistant Amy Muller, wanted to find a way to give back to the community together. So he pitched the idea of an eye clinic to the fledgling nonprofit in Cedar Rapids.
“We were aware of other ways we could give back or make contributions. Amy and I decided we’d really like to do something local — we enjoy feeling like we’re part of a community,” Dr. Muller said. “I had this underlying feeling that we wanted to be part of that — help people who are in need and who have hit hard times in their lives.”
Because being unable to afford good health care shouldn’t preclude you from quality health care, he said.
With their own financial contributions and support from the Hall-Perrine Foundation, the free clinic was able to open an in-house eye clinic in 2008. Since then, Dr. Muller and the eye clinic have provided services over 3,700 times to local patients.
Last week, after 18 years with the free clinic, Dr. Muller’s work was recognized by the Iowa Medical Society with its fifth Physician Humanitarian Award.
“He’s a visionary. (He said) ‘I don’t want to go overseas to do mission work — I think there’s mission work to be done in our own community,’ ” said Darlene Schmidt, CEO of Community Health Free Clinic. “Had he not stepped up, all these people would never have had eye care.”
“Beyond a blessing”
Muller’s work, which has become a significant portion of Community Health Free Clinic’s services as it has matured, represents a reprieve against some trends.
As health care affordability becomes a greater and greater concern, Muller said the free clinic is a critical beacon for uninsured and underinsured Eastern Iowans who have few other places to go.
“It’s a huge issue. From the most basic standpoint for people with eye diseases … there’s a lot of people who fall through the cracks, or they can’t afford coverage,” he said. “There are ways to get it sometimes, but it’s outside their means.”
He was all-in with the free clinic’s mission because of its open-door philosophy, with no means testing, like some clinics, for low-income patients. Whether they need foreign body removal or a new pair of glasses, the ophthalmologist and surgeon sees no distinction between patients in his volunteer work and insured patients at his full-time job at the Iowa Eye Center.
“If you walk through the door, you get cared for,” said Muller, 60. “I love that open door care that the clinic exemplifies and being part of that.”
Thanks to generous support, his spearheading has been matched by other organizations and physicians. When the pandemic interrupted the clinic’s operations, the work became more integrated with partner providers off-site, whose care is seamlessly integrated with financial support from other entities to help zero out each bill.
If Muller provides cataract surgery to someone in need, for example, the surgery center will write off facility charges and Linn County Anesthesia writes off anesthesia costs to make the surgery free.
“It’s been beyond a blessing,” Schmidt said. “Everybody knows someone who needs health care. Our patients become our friends, we know them inside and out.”
Volunteerism trends
While many younger doctors have picked up the mantle in serving their community generously, the medical profession is not immune to general trends. Across many nonprofits, volunteerism’s decadeslong decline was accelerated by the pandemic.
Schmidt said securing medical provider volunteers is one of the free clinic’s greatest challenges today, despite a need that grows each year.
“Everyday we have anywhere from 30 to 50 people or more who show up needing care,” she said. “If I don’t have doctors or providers, we don’t have a clinic.”
Muller cited changes in medicine over the years that may be contributing to the decline.
“We spend so much time now documenting, for instance, and dealing with electronic health records and administrative things that I think (some) younger doctors feel that when they’re done with their day at the office, they want to get back to other (personal) things,” he said.
Jeanette Werling, a free clinic board member who suggested Muller’s nomination, said he stands out among volunteers for the simple reason that he still works full-time.
“We usually see physicians donate time after they’re retired, and they pick up a date here and there,” she said. “It’s harder to find (working) physicians who can take afternoons or a couple hours to serve patients.”
The award
The Physician Humanitarian Award, which recognizes doctors who “unassumingly volunteer outside the spectrum of their day-to-day lives,” represents an increasingly critical need for physicians who work more broadly in their communities. With several nominations around the state each year, it takes an “extraordinary” level of service, personal involvement and personal investment to earn the award — something beyond writing a check.
“This award is to focus on thanking and recognizing physicians who make contributions around human dignity, social justice and just in general trying to improve their community beyond what they do in an office or hospital,” said Dr. Christi Taylor, Iowa Medical Society board president. “This is something we’re specifically (doing) to try to help improve the community in terms of compassionate care and access to not just health care, but things that are basic needs in our society.”
But, speaking of checks, the award comes with a hefty one. With a $10,000 Iowa Medical Society donation directed to the free clinic, Muller was able to put a cherry on top of the inordinate support, time and services he’s provided over 18 years.
Werling said that money will go a long way in helping with prescription drug and dental care costs, the former of which have to be purchased at market price through grants and other funding.
“It’s an honor to be recognized, but I’m just thrilled that the monetary award gets to go to Community Health Free Clinic,” Muller said, “because I know how good they are at making use of it. I know how they really put that money to use efficiently and effectively.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
