GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. — Five years ago, Dr. Michael Menachof and the staff at Advanced ENT & Allergy Center in Greenwood Village, said they decided they wanted to do something to give back to the community.
"For the kind of medical care that we do, people who don’t have insurance don’t have access," said Menachof, an Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) doctor and the owner of Advanced ENT & Allergy Center.
"Chronic infection, sinusitis, tonsillitis, can’t hear because of chronic ear infections -- those kinds of things," he said. "You don’t have access to that if you don’t have healthcare or health insurance."
That's where he said the idea for "one-day-a-month" was born.
"I didn't want to just take my medical bag and go to a clinic somewhere that needed my help," Menachof said. "What I really wanted was something that we all could do."
In 2015, Advanced ENT & Allergy Center began opening its doors once a month to treat low-income, under-insured, and uninsured patients for ENT-related medical issues, free of charge.
"About five years ago, we did our first one-day-a-month," Menachof said. "I think we had 16 people show up."
Today, he said he and his staff see more like 100 patients in one day at the clinic for consultations, surgery, and intervention treatments like hearing aids.
"This thing that started as just a small idea has turned into this amazing thing," Menachof said. "You don’t realize how much it’s going to affect you. You think about how we’ll be able to help these people who don’t have access and that’ll be good. But it changed all of us, too.”
Patients who come to one-day-a-month for ENT-related medical issues have to be referred by Salud Clinic or Clínica Tepeyac. Both are clinics that focus on low-income, medically under-served populations in the area.
If you are interested in becoming a patient at one-day-a-month or know someone who could be helped by the doctors at Advanced ENT & Allergy Center through this project, visit AdvancedENTdenver.com.
Or, you can reach out directly to one of the referring clinics:
Clinica Tepeyac:
303-458 - 5302
SaludFamily Health Centers:
303-697 - 2583
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