TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Housing Agency Orders Neighborhood Clinic Closed

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOHN W. ALLMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 27, 2007

TAMPA - A neighborhood medical clinic at a Tampa Housing Authority property is closing after its founder admitted last week to being in violation of a three-year-old agreement to not see patients there.

The physician, Sydel LeGrande, said Tuesday that she will vacate her one-bedroom apartment at North Boulevard Homes within two weeks because she can't simply use the office for administrative needs.

'I can't be there and not take care of them,' she said of patients who visit her clinic on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The issue came to a head last week when LeGrande was asked to update the authority's board on her clinic, Your Place Medical Center.

She presented board members with a five-page packet outlining services she provided at the one-bedroom apartment on West Union Street.

In the packet, she acknowledged agreeing in November 2003 to not see patients at the apartment because she did not have malpractice insurance.

Authority lawyer Ricardo Gilmore said the insurance was needed to protect the authority if LeGrande made a mistake while dispensing medical care.

LeGrande said at that time it was a 'temporary situation' and that she would get insurance. Last week, however, she told the board she still had no insurance. She also wrote in her packet, 'We do provide limited medical care in our office.' The services she outlined ranged from routine medical care to HIV testing, pre-natal care and testing for other infections.

The board took no action but agreed to revisit the clinic issue at a workshop.

Three days later, on Friday, LeGrande told The Tampa Tribune that she would not stop seeing patients, despite Gilmore's concern. 'The need outweighs what the attorney said,' she said.

By Tuesday, however, the clinic was closed.

LeGrande, reached early in the day, said she was no longer seeing patients at North Boulevard because she did not want the Tribune to bring negative publicity to the authority.

'That way, when you write your story, you won't have anything to say,' she said.

Patients Not Told Clinic Closed

LeGrande did not tell patients of her decision to suspend normal office hours.

Melantha Aponte, a 33-year-old mother of three who suffers from multiple sclerosis, had an 11 a.m. appointment to receive a referral to a neurologist. She sat on the stoop outside LeGrande's clinic, waiting on someone to arrive. 'I love the clinic,' Aponte said. 'She's a very reassuring doctor. I just feel comfortable with her.'

Aponte, who lives near the Veterans Expressway and Gunn Highway and has difficulty walking because of her illness, took a bus to the housing authority property. She arrived about 9 a.m. and began her wait. At 11:30 a.m., she got up to walk back to the bus stop to begin her trip home.

A few hours later, LeGrande received a letter from Leroy Moore, the authority's vice president. Moore said he had visited the clinic Monday out of concern from last week's housing meeting. 'Despite the apparent benefits you may be providing,' he wrote, 'this authority cannot and will not permit the continued unauthorized use of our facilities.'

Moore told LeGrande that she had five days to schedule a meeting with housing officials.

He said she was to immediately cease seeing patients on-site and quit any other business activities at the housing property.

Without Walls Church Link

State documents list two businesses registered at the North Boulevard Homes address. One is Your Place Health Systems, which was incorporated as a limited liability company in June 2006.

The other is Fruit of Glory Ministries, which was incorporated in 1998 but changed its mailing address to the North Boulevard Homes apartment in June 2004.

Gilmore, during an interview last week, said he was unaware LeGrande was operating a ministry at the location.

LeGrande said the ministry and the medical clinic are the same. However, the ministry receives $2,000 a month in financial assistance from Paula White Ministries of Without Walls International Church.

White's Web site refers to the medical clinic as an offshoot of the ministry. Fruit of Glory Ministries offers 'an array of services to thousands in Central Florida,' it says. Your Place Medical offers 'comprehensive healthcare' to more than 900 low-income residents, the Web site says.

LeGrande, in her report to the housing board, said she saw about 20 North Boulevard residents a month and had files for about 150 patients.

Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT