From Army Nurse to HELPcare Clinic Director
In this week's edition of Take Charge with HELPcare, we introduce you to Clinic Director Margo White, whose leadership has been essential to HELPcare Clinic successfully navigating the challenges of growth over the last two years.
Margo joined the U.S. Army as a combat medical specialty right out of high school because of her patriotism and because she wanted to serve her country and to help protect the freedoms we enjoy. She drove a Humvee ambulance and more than 200 field deployments in her first three years and was awarded a scholarship that paid for her training as a nurse.
Margo was an early believer in HELPcare Clinic:
We were part of the founding members. We hadn't gone (for an appointment yet) because we're a fairly healthy family..(but) my son was struggling with some mental health stuff that was going on at school and ... the school social worker called me and said you need to take him to the ER or you need to get him seen or take him to your primary....I remember talking to Lisa, Lee's wife and (asking) "Does (Dr. Strobel) have any acute appointments?" And she's like, "We don't have anything available, but let me call you back."
She never called me back. Instead, I got a phone call from Dr. Strobel's personal number calling me. And I about lost it at that time, because as a nurse, your practitioners never call you directly, right? There's not ever that communication. And (he said) "I was just was wondering. I don't have any availability for him to be seen tomorrow or today, but I'm driving down from the cities. Can I stop by your house? I have to come through Blooming Prairie to get to Austin and is it okay if I do a house call?"
He talked to my son for, you know, for an hour or so. And then he talked to me for an hour. I have a lot of experience with behavioral health and mental health and suicide. I've lost three of my team members to suicide since coming back from Iraq. So suicide is very real for me....
And so as doc was leaving I was like, you know, when you're ready to hire a nurse, you let me know. Because I so believe in what you're doing and I just really want to be a part of it.
Margo joined HELPcare Clinic as a part-time staff nurse in April 2023 and by August we asked her to take over as Nursing Director. As Clinic Director, she's responsible for all operations at HELPcare Clinic in Austin and Rochester, including nursing, the lab, patient scheduling and support staff.
As we illustrated in last week's episode, HELPcare has a "family" feel. Margo's leadership training and experience have helped us maintain that personal approach to care while also scaling to meet the needs as HELPcare Clinic membership has tripled in the last two years.
Watch the full episode:
Subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts for the audio version.
We're growing and planning expansion, so we're looking for physicians, practitioners, nurses and other professionals who resonate with this approach to primary care and share our values.
If that's you, we'd love to start a conversation with you about being part of the HELPcare Clinic team. Check out our HELPcare Careers page.
If this type of care is what you've been looking for as a patient, see how our membership approach can work for you.
If you're an employer looking for better care for your employees while keeping health plan costs under control, learn more about Health Insurance with HELPcare.
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