L-R: South Cove Executive Director Eugene Welch, QARI Board Member and former South Cove staff Esther H.P. Lee, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch and QARI Board President David Yi Zhou

South Cove's Eugene Welch was honored by the Quincy Asian Resources, Inc., with the Visionary Award at the organization's Annual Community Banquet on May 14, 2010, which took place at the Quincy China Pearl Restaurant.  The Community Banquet "celebrates the growing Asian influence in Quincy and recognizes those that contributed to the betterment of the Asian immigrant populations in the town."  It was attended by 600+ guests and among the distinguished guests were Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, Massachusetts State Senator Michael Morrissey and Quincy City Council President Kevin Coughlin. 
 
Four awards were presented honoring five very deserving recipients:  Founder's Award, Visionary Award, Community Partner, and the Unsung Hero Award.  The Visionary Award "recognizes someone who has dedicated himself/herself to serving the Asian community and building capacity for them in terms of services and support."   This year, Eugene was chosen for the award in acknowledgment to his dedication and commitment to expanding healthcare services for the Asian community in the greater Quincy area.  In his acceptance speech, Eugene was both honored and humbled by this award; he was very proud of the South Cove Quincy Clinic, which opened its doors in 1998. Since then, patient number has increased steadily year after year to 11,000 today.  In 2007, the clinic relocated to a new location. The much bigger facility offers more services, more flexibility in terms of scheduling and is more accessible than ever before opening 7 days a week.  He is pleased with the progress thus far but certainly feels that there is always room for improvement.  Eugene looks to continue expanding capacity and services to Quincy and the south shore residents.  Celebrating this honor with Eugene were many of the South Cove staff and board members.

We would like to extend congratulations to all the awardees:
Founders Award: Attorney Tackey Chan, a candidate for State Representative with extensive community work who also helped found Quincy Asian Resources, Inc..
Community Partner Award: C&C Company owners, Lily and Henry Chu, for their involvement with the community, and Comcast Cable for supporting QARI's mission and various programs.
Unsung Hero Award: Ryan Daniels, a long-time and devoted volunteer in Quincy's Asian community.
 
Scholarships were also given to four graduating seniors who demonstrated not only academic  excellence but also dedication to community service and volunteerism. 
 
Quincy Asian Recourses, Inc. was founded in 2001 with the mission is to "foster and promote the development of the social, cultural, economic and civic lives of Asian Americans to benefit the entire community." 

Photos by Kara Delahunt, courtesy of QARI

• Remodeled the Washington Street clinic by adding six new exam rooms, one in Ob/Gyn and five in Adult Medicine.  The clinic now has a total of 23 exam rooms to better serve our patients.
• Progressing with the electronic medical records: Adult Medicine, Pediatrics and Behavioral Health departments are now paperless.  The process has begun for Ob/Gyn and specialties such as neurology, cardiology and podiatry, next up will be the optometry and dental departments.  Currently, all departments have access to the EMR for medication lists and patient notes.
• Remodeling of the dental department at the South Street and Quincy clinics to add digital x-rays and more dental chairs to bring them to 11 total. 
• Worked on and started a grant with AACA to provide on-the-job training to staff to improve skills needed to better perform their job functions.
• Securing the Federal 330 grant for 3 more years through March 2012.

The health center now boasts over 24,000 patients and sees 149,000 visits a year.  These are remarkable figures in a tough economic period.  We realize that there are many challenges and changes ahead in the healthcare field, as both the federal and state governments face budget crises and cuts in healthcare coverage are expected.  But no matter what the obstacle, South Cove vows to continue its mission of serving the underserved. 
 
Looking ahead, Eugene feels that South Cove is in a good place and has a bright future.  He expresses his gratitude for the unfailing support from the Board of Directors and the hard work by all staff members, without which, it would not have been possible for the health center to continually move forward with a solid financial performance.      
 
Election of Board members and officers:
All Board members up for election this year have graciously agreed to volunteer their time and expertise to serve a new 3-year term on this board.
The newly elected board members were: I-Min Lee, Steve Ng, Fred Taw, Alvin Wing and Michael Wong.
The following officers were elected for a second term:
President: Chi Ma
Secretary: Stephen Tang
Treasurer: Cindy Chen

L-R: Alvin Wing, Mike Wong, Thuy Tran, I-Min Lee, Chi Ma, Stephen Tang, April Tang, Cindy Chen, Elmer Leong, Harry Lee and David Yee

We would like to share with our readers two wonderful and heartfelt letters from our patients.  As always, we appreciate their support and thank them equally for choosing South Cove and for giving us the opportunity to shine through our work.   
 
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Dear Mr. Eugene,
 
I mean to write the letter in May 2009, but I figured that it is not too late to write to you to express our great appreciation and true admiration for South Cove Community Health Center.
 
Jenny, my wife, and I are a young couple and we live in Pittsburgh.  Last year when Jenny's mother become seriously ill with cancer, Jenny, then 8 months pregnant, left for Boston to take care of her mother full-time.  We made the decision quickly, and we did not even think about Jenny's insurance coverage.  We discovered that her HMO insurance did not cover neonatal care outside of Pittsburgh. After a few panicked calls, Jenny's cousin recommended that we visit South Cove.
 
Jenny became a patient of Dr. Lucy Chie at the Washington Street clinic.  Jenny was amazed - both with the efficiency and breadth of services the clinic offers, and equally with the warmth of the staff and their evident desire to help her stay healthy during the last few weeks of her pregnancy and the last few weeks of her mother's life.  On a visit to Boston, I went to a neonatal appointment and expected to wait for hours, but instead we zipped through and we were finished in about 45 minutes.  We began to tell all our friends about our great experiences at South Cove.
 
The neonatal visits were only the beginning, however.  Dr. Chie helped Jenny wait more than four hours for me to arrive in Boston for the birth of our first child.  Dr. Chie delivered our baby girl, Sarah, an hour after I arrived.  Again, this was not the end of our great experience at South Cove.
 
After Sarah's arrival, we began seeing Dr. Roland Tang at South Cove's Quincy clinic.  We had a few difficulties in the first few weeks trying to get Sarah to gain weight, and Dr. Tang and the nurses at South Cove were wonderful.  They were sympathetic and helpful without being overbearing.  And neither Jenny, nor I, has ever been to a doctor's office that was so flexible in scheduling.  When Sarah did finally turn the corner and gain weight, everyone shared a smile of relief with us.  We consistently rave about South Cove to our friends in Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh and everywhere else.
 
If this is the face of community health services, our country could use a lot more of it.

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