Western Tidewater Free Clinic – Serving the Healthcare Needs of the Region 

TowneBank is honored to support the Western Tidewater Free Clinic (l. to r.) Robin Cooke, TowneBank president of retail banking; Robin Leavy, TowneBank Foundation executive director; Ashley Greene, Western Tidewater Free Clinic executive director; Rhonda Stewart, Western Tidewater Free Clinic former executive director; and Chelsea Copan, TowneBank vice president and private banker. 

As a native of Suffolk, Ashley Greene, executive director of Western Tidewater Free Clinic, lives by the motto to leave things better than she found them. She has been with the clinic for almost ten years, serving as director of development for nine years before taking over the helm. 

Western Tidewater Free Clinic was founded in 2007 after community members noticed a trend that people were using the emergency room at the local hospital for non-emergency care. With Obici Healthcare Foundation leading the way and support from community donors, the clinic opened its doors to provide high-quality, non-emergency healthcare to the residents of Western Tidewater who cannot otherwise afford it. Their service area spans 2,200 square miles and helps low-income, uninsured, and underinsured residents of the cities of Suffolk and Franklin, and the counties of Isle of Wight, Southampton, Surry, and Sussex. The majority of their patients reside in Suffolk, and 70% of patients live at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level, currently an annual household income of $30,000 for a family of four. 

“All of the services we provide – medical, dental and vision care, women’s health services, mental health care, patient education, laboratory and diagnostic testing, medications through our onsite pharmacy — all these things are free for our patients,” explains Ashley. “But we are not free to run. Our current budget is just under $2.5 million, and we have to raise 85% of that from the community.”  

Over the years, with the support of many community partners, WTFC has worked hard to build its team and currently has 25 full and part-time employees. Their providers include a full-time medical director and nurse practitioner, several nurses, medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, and a pharmacist who comes in once a week to help fill prescriptions. The clinic also has a full-time dentist for the first time in its history, and an expansion of its dental suite is almost complete. This will add about 1,000 square feet to the current facility and increase the number of dental chairs from two to four, enabling them to serve approximately 200 more dental patients in the first year.  

The TowneBank Foundation recently made a multi-year gift to support these and other expansion efforts that meet the growing needs of WTFC patients. Ashley says, “We are incredibly grateful to our friends at TowneBank who are true partners and believe in our mission and want to help wherever the need is. They don’t just write checks, they actually show up and are advocates and advisors for us as we need that support. We recognize that we’re part of the TowneBank family, and we really value that relationship.” 

Ashley attributes WTFC’s success to the incredible team they’ve put together and the generosity of the Western Tidewater community. “I am from Suffolk, and I’m raising my four children with my husband, who is also from Suffolk, so I love the community and feel really honored to serve the clinic. I believe in leaving things you are fortunate to be a part of better than you found them. That’s what we try to do at the clinic.” 

For more information, visit WTFreeClinic.org.