Under a makeshift tent in the rising Florida heat, volunteer nurses worked in masks and gloves, screening patients for an invisible threat. Inside the Point Washington United Methodist Church, the rest of the team kept the doors of the free clinic open — caring for the chronically ill, the uninsured, and the worried well. It was the spring of 2020, and the Point Washington Medical Clinic (PWMC) was holding the line against a global pandemic with little more than determination and a folding tent.
It wasn't sustainable. But it was deeply characteristic of an organization that has always found a way.
Born From a Belief That Healthcare Is for Everyone
Founded in 2017 in Santa Rosa Beach, PWMC was built on a radical, beautifully simple idea: that quality primary care should be available to anyone who walks through the door. No insurance. No documents. No pay stubs. No catch.
In just three years, the all-volunteer clinic had served more than 6,000 patients, saved the community an estimated $1.5 million in healthcare costs, and logged nearly 20,000 volunteer hours from local doctors, nurses, and administrators. When hurricanes struck, PWMC set up pop-up clinics. When neighbors needed care, PWMC said yes. This is an outreach, the team often says. We love people, and we love this community.
That ethos is exactly what made the pandemic so painful — and exactly why PWMC refused to close.
The Challenge: Caring Safely in a Pandemic
As COVID-19 cases climbed past six million nationwide, PWMC faced an impossible equation. Patients with potential COVID symptoms needed to be separated from those coming in for routine care. Volunteers needed protection. Florida summers needed no introduction.
The tent outside the church was a stopgap, not a solution. The clinic needed a way to expand its capacity, protect its people, and continue offering the same trusted, compassionate care its community had come to depend on.
The Grant: A Mobile Clinic Becomes a Haven
In 2020, the J.W. Couch Foundation proudly supported PWMC's Mobile Clinic Support project — funding a dedicated mobile unit that would transform how the clinic responded to the pandemic.
The impact was immediate. PWMC administered more than 1,000 COVID-19 tests almost exclusively through the new mobile clinic and absorbed nearly $40,000 in lab fees so that no patient would be turned away by cost. Meanwhile, inside the church, regular primary care continued uninterrupted — the same attentive volunteers, the same dignity, the same open door.
Looking Forward
The mobile clinic is more than a vehicle. It's an extension of PWMC's founding belief — that healthcare belongs to the community, and that compassion travels wherever it's needed. As PWMC continues to grow, its mobile unit will keep serving neighbors during storms, outbreaks, and the everyday moments when someone simply needs a doctor who will see them.
In a season that pulled the world apart, the Point Washington Medical Clinic found a way to bring its community closer. And that, perhaps, is the most inspiring kind of medicine of all.
