A new medical clinic may come to town next year. 

Heartland Community Health Center recently applied for a grant with hopes of bringing services to the city. The grant, given by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, would provide the center with $650,000 for at least three years. 

The center will find out if the project is approved in June. If selected, the clinic would be fully operational by the end of October 2025. 

Heartland CEO Julie Branstrom said the center has been looking at bringing services into the city for a while. 

“Expansion into Eudora is a part of our strategic plan,” Branstrom said. “So, when this grant opportunity became available, we viewed this as an opportunity to try to accelerate the process of potentially bringing services directly into Eudora through a new access point.”

Lawrence’s Heartland location already serves plenty of people from Eudora, but Branstrom thinks it’s important to find ways to serve those who can’t travel 10 miles out of town. 

“We know there’s a need,” she said. “We have heard pretty consistently that transportation can often be a barrier for somebody that’s needing an appointment.”

Eudora Community Navigator Laura Smith said it is a huge barrier to health care.

“If you are looking at medical deserts, Eudora doesn’t qualify as one because we’re so close to Kansas City and Lawrence. But, it becomes a really big issue if you don’t have a working vehicle, and we don’t have a public transportation system,” Smith said.

The clinic would provide primary care, behavioral health careand dental outreach services. 

While the city already has an LMH Health location, Smith said it will be beneficial to have some place that provides more than primary care, specifically behavioral health. 

“LMH is fantastic at handling those physical medical needs,” she said. “One of the main components that we’re missing in Eudora is behavioral health. We don’t have any providers and that’s something that Heartland can provide.”

Along with those services, Branstrom said Heartland will also provide community health care workers to help the social aspects of health. 

“They’re just basically working to help a patient navigate resources that may not seem like they’re health care related, but they impact somebody’s ability to be healthy,” Branstrom said. “Things like lack of child careor lack of transportation or not speaking English.”

Branstrom said a long-term goal is to have in-house dental services, as well. 

“That would come later – kind of in a phase two – because it’s definitely more complicated,” she said. 

Branstrom is looking to open the clinic at 1904 Elm St. in the former location of Pyramid Place Early Education Center, if the space is still available in June. 

“We don’t think that that would be the forever home for Heartland. That could be a good place for us to get started while we think about other locations that are closer to downtown,” Branstrom said. “We’d really like to be on the other side of the highway long term.”

Branstrom has spent the past couple of months collecting letters of support from the city, the school district and other key stakeholders throughout the community. 

Assistant City Manager Zack Daniel is supportive of bringing Heartland into the city. 

“It’s gonna serve a good chunk of our community,” Daniel said. “The more health care options that we can provide, or that can be provided locally, the better.”

Branstrom said she feels hopeful about receiving funding. 

“Even if we are not awarded the grant, we will probably try to find a way to come to Eudora anyway,” Branstrom said. “We really want to be in Eudora.” 

Reach reporter Ryn Drummond at [email protected] 

To donate to support our community journalism, please go to this link: tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj