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Dr. Paul Thorne, a physician advisor at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, has given back to the community by volunteering his time at the Osceola Christian Ministry Center. SUBMITTED PHOTO
For the last 21 years, Dr. Paul Thorne, a physician advisor at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, has spent his Thursdays volunteering at the free medical clinic he founded as part of the Osceola Christian Ministry Center.
Despite raising a family and working a busy schedule as a doctor, Thorne has consistently found time to give back to the less fortunately throughout the community.
Thorne’s dedication to the Osceola community began when he and his family moved to Florida from Canada in 1995 and he co-owned a medical practice in St. Cloud. After struggling with opiate addiction and receiving treatment, Thorne decided the best way he could help others was to open the clinic.
“After I got treatment, I had a burden to help the homeless and people with addiction problems,” he said. “I got into our church, we have the Osceola Christian Ministry Center, and we started the clinic. I’ve been doing it since that time, part-time alongside my regular practice.”
Thorne’s clinic, which is available to anyone in the community, so long as they do not have any form of insurance, is run primarily by private donations, most of which are coordinated by First Baptist Church of Kissimmee. The church also helps with volunteers, such as the clinic receptionist. There is also a dental clinic that operates alongside the medical clinic, though Covid has impacted both clinics.
“[The dental clinic] used to be open all the time but with Covid, it is once every two weeks on Friday mornings,” Thorne said. “Right now, I’m the only physician [at the medical clinic], so we’re looking at options.”
Thorne said the combination of doctors being nervous about treating COVID-19 patients at the clinic, and it being a facility that doesn’t bring in any income makes it difficult to find volunteers, which has also led to a decrease in the overall number of patients they’ve seen.
“Before Covid, I was seeing 15-20 [patients] a day,” he said. “Now, it is just two or three usually. I’m trying to consider what the plan is. I want to keep it going because it is something I feel is needed but I’m not able to do it all myself.”
Thorne hopes to recruit others to help at the clinic, nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants who have the same goal: addressing the physical, emotional and spiritual health of patients.
“I think that people who have a desire to be able to talk to people about those three things: spiritual, physical, and emotional health – I really think that is important,” Thorne said.
