Open Wide! ARCW’s Second Dental Clinic Set To Debut
“State Of The Art” Facility Reflects Agency’s Greater Expansion Into Health Services
Green Bay - On January 2, 2007 it was unfinished space used for storing copy paper, computer parts and condoms. Ten weeks and a quarter million dollars later it has become what one dentist visiting the new facility called “straight out of The Jetsons.” ARCW’s second dental clinic will open for business on April 24, much to the relief  of hundreds of those living with HIV and AIDS in greater Wisconsin. They have faced sometimes insurmountable financial, medical and geographic barriers in the quest to obtain the dental care needed to maintain a robust level of health for their already-compromised immune systems.
  Dental care for low and even some middle-income Wisconsin residents already had reached near-crisis levels, a fact alluded to by Governor Jim Doyle in his March 22 announcement of over $12 million dollars to provide increased access to comprehensive dental care in the state. For those living with HIV, lack of dental care can be life shortening.
  “HIV disease can manifest itself in several ways including thrush, warts, and gum disease,” ARCW Dental Director Steve Debbink told Quest. “Additional complications may arise as a result of either HIV disease or as a side effect of medication used to combat the virus. Additionally, people living with HIV have often gone without professional dental care for long periods of time... the Dental Clinic is in a position to alleviate the negative effects HIV infection has in the mouth and help HIV-positive people live long and healthy lives.”
  In his March announcement Doyle named ARCW a recipient of a $349,800 Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services Oral Health Access Grant to increase its capacity to provide dental care to people living with HIV across Wisconsin. The agency was one of only seven organizations awarded funding from a pool of thirty-nine applicants.
  With the additional funding ARCW will be able to increase the number of patients receiving dental care through the ARCW Medical Center’s Milwaukee and Green Bay dental clinics by 25%, from 1,069 in 2006 to 1,336 patients. The Milwaukee clinic currently adds new patients at a rate of 22 each month. The Green Bay clinic is expected to serve about 200 patients by the end of this year.
  ARCW used the state DHFS grant to complete the construction of Green Bay clinic and to replace outdated dental equipment in the Milwaukee clinic. A $2 million, five-year federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant announced last September had initially made the Green Bay clinic possible.
  With the Green Bay site, ARCW continues to run the only HIV specialty dental clinics in Wisconsin.  The dental program has been designated a Special Project of National Significance, ARCW’s fifth program to receive such notice.
  Debbink, who recently was honored by the Marquette University School of Dentistry in recognition of nearly a decade of dedicated service to ARCW’s patients, reflected on the changes he has seen over that time to people living with HIV/AIDS. “People with HIV are living longer than they did at the beginning of my career,” he said. “This has lead to more opportunities for oral infections and for longer periods of time where the side effects of medications can take their toll on the mouth.  Together, these have created a demand for more restorative care for my patients.”
  That care will be state of the art at the Green Bay site. All record-keeping, from the “paperless” patient signatures to digital x-rays, will be handled by a system of computers. Patients will be able to see exactly what their dentist or hygienist  is talking about inside their mouths via flat screen monitors mounted to the dental chairs. The providers themselves also will be able to conduct real-time consultations with other specialists via a closed intranet network.
  The new clinic’s “bells and whistles” also serve to draw attention to ARCW’s increased expansion into the direct provision of health care services for those living with HIV/AIDS, something only a handful of AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) do nationwide. Since its opening in 2001, the ARCW Medical Center has seen its patient load mushroom from 44 to 602 patients as of the end of 2006, a thirteen-fold increase. ARCW is now the largest provider of HIV-related medical care in the epicenter of the state’s AIDS epidemic, Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin. The explosion of HIV+ patients seeking care at the agency has triggered a second major project, an $800,000 renovation now underway at ARCW’s downtown Milwaukee site.
  Just a few years ago ARCW was not known as a health care provider, but rather a partner in the total care of people living with HIV. Quest asked ARCW President and CEO Doug Nelson about the agency’s move into health care services. As might be expected, the new clinic was on his mind. “First let me say that we are so enthused to be opening the new ARCW Dental Clinic in Green Bay,” he said. “It is a state of the art dental clinic and its responding to a significant need in Green Bay and northeast Wisconsin for quality dental care in an HIV sensitive environment.”
  As to ARCW’s unique position among ASOs, Nelson offered an overview. “Most AIDS Service Organizations in the country are known for providing HIV social services,” he noted. “At ARCW, we have historically provided comprehensive social services including food pantries, housing, rent assistance, legal assistance and case management.  Without question, ARCW is one of the few ASOs in the country to add the provision of health care to its mission.”
  Nelson sees logic in ARCW’s expansion into health care. “We’ve done this because as the AIDS epidemic has evolved this has been the most urgent need,” he said. “If people with HIV have access to quality health care, they have a chance for a long and healthy life.  Without health care, disease progression is almost assured.”
  “At ARCW we’ve always been about meeting the needs of the AIDS epidemic as it has evolved,” Nelson added.  “So very carefully over the past few years we have built the components of a multidisciplinary health care system at ARCW: medical, dental and mental health care services.  And our commitment is to make these vital health care services available to all patients, regardless of economic status and their ability to pay.” 
  According to Nelson, for 2007 ARCW has made a commitment to spend $3 million delivering such critical health care services. “We may be the only ASO in the country that has done this - but it is meeting a huge need in Wisconsin and is helping us achieve the global HIV goal of universal health care for everyone with HIV and AIDS right here in Wisconsin.”
  And what does the future hold? Nelson is certain that in addition to being a leader in HIV prevention and social services the agency will be “striving to be a center of excellence in HIV health care delivery.”
  “Our future also is about our commitment to all of Wisconsin,” Nelson said. “Making sure that health care and social support services are available and that aggressive prevention programs permeate the state. Opening the new ARCW Dental Clinic in Green Bay is an example of this commitment.” 
  To punctuate his promise, Nelson shared plans for an additional service coming to northeast Wisconsin. “Before the end of 2007 we also will provide mental health therapy in Green Bay, he said.  We believe in the integration of mental and physical health services.”
  But how to pay for it all? Nelson told Quest it’s part of the overall strategy. “We work hard to make sure that the financial equation for supporting our provision of health care is sound,” he said. “We are very fortunate  to have strong support from the State of Wisconsin through the historic Mike Johnson Life Care Services Act.  Thanks to Governor Doyle, we have been successful in increasing that grant by 25% and we’ve used all of that increase to support the ARCW Medical Center.” (Editor’s note: longtime AIDS activist Johnson also has served as ombudsman for ARCW’s clients.)
  Nelson then listed other key sources of financial support. “We also have strong support from the federal government,” he added. “We work hard to capture the appropriate amount reimbursement from Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance companies.  And we rely very heavily on the support from our donors - individuals, corporations, foundations and through special events.
  One such major “special event” is the upcoming “Moulin Rouge at Make A Promise,” the 2007 version ARCW’s long-running signature dinner, auction and entertainment. The April 21 event will offer an evening of Parisian “glamour and romance” and promises to light up the Midwest Airlines Center, showcasing the spectacular beauty and magic of the world’s most famous cabaret.
  The event annually brings together about a thousand of Wisconsin’s philanthropic, medical, political, and corporate leaders to support ARCW in the fight against HIV/AIDS. According to ARCW Vice President and Chief Development Officer Dan Mueller, this year’s event promises to be a record-setter, with advance tickets already surpassing the 2006 event, which raised $149,000 to benefit the prevention, care, and treatment programs to people affected by HIV/AIDS throughout the state, regardless of their ability to pay.
  However, Mueller points out seats are still available, noting that “people from all over Wisconsin are traveling down for the big night.” Individual ticket prices range from $85 to $125. Tables of 10 are also still available. Individual and group tickets may be ordered online at: www.arcw.org. Click to the “Admit One” icon on the Moulin Rouge page. Also feel free to contact event coordinator Tad Gospodarek at 414- 225-1598 or Amanda Garry at 414-225-1570 with any questions. Attire for the evening is black tie optional. (Click on the windmill logo below for additional information.)
  The Midwest Airlines Center is located at 400 W. Wisconsin Avenue on the corner of 4th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Parking is available in the Wisconsin Center District parking structure. The entrance is located at 500 W. Wells Street, on the North side of the street. A limited amount of metered street parking is also available.
  The “Make A Promise” dinner has been around nearly as long as Nelson himself, who is nudging two decades at the helm of the agency, a tenure practically unheard of in the field of HIV/AIDS. Nelson waxed almost a bit nostalgic when asked about looking back at his service to ARCW. At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic we all hoped for a quick cure which didn’t come,” he said. “Then we all hoped for drug treatment regimens that would keep people with HIV alive.  We all lost many friends and loved ones over many years.”
  However, things are a lot brighter for those infected as the epidemic itself pushes 30. “But now we have the medical treatments that keep HIV patients alive and well,” Nelson added  That’s why assuring access to medical care is the most important thing we can do!”
  "From the beginning I have always thought that ARCW had an obligation to meet the needs of the epidemic wherever that would take us,” Nelson said. “It’s why we started needle exchange way back in l994. It’s why we opened food pantries all around the state in response to increasing poverty of our clients and patients. And surely, once the medical advancements were accomplished in the mid-nineties, and the need for health care was preeminent. I didn’t believe that ARCW would meet the needs of the epidemic in Wisconsin unless we added medical, dental and mental health care services.”
  Later this month, as those living with HIV begin laying back and opening wide to receive the best dental care the 21st Century can offer, provided Dr. Debbink and other professionals at a clinic made just for them, Nelson and ARCW will be able to mark off another box on their to-do list. But with all the improvements already underway in the Milwaukee and those planned for greater Wisconsin, the ongoing additions to agency’s client caseload from newly-infected and transferred clients, and finding ways to pay for it all, that list is far from finished.