India House Medical Clinic is Now a Full Time Clinic Major Expansion of 900%

By Dr. Virendra Mathur
HOUSTON: India House, a community center, the showcase of commitment of Indian-Americans of Greater Houston, finally started operations in 2008 after nearly 40 years of dreaming that such a center can indeed become a reality. Several community service programs got started like, education of young children with daily after school program to reinforce Math, Science and English; and special full day summer school for children in need of special coaching, Senior citizen’s meeting place for recreation, socialization and entertainment; health and fitness program with Yoga, children’s introduction to Cricket (taped ball); spiritual program like Geeta education and meditation classes, youngster’s cultural program like Dance classes, bringing children and seniors to digital era by computer classes; legal assistance for immigrants, new to the country and one of the special programs, very dear to my heart, the Charity Medical clinic.

We started with a relatively small facility of approximately 800 sq. feet under the leadership of Dr. Manish Rungta, operating only on Saturdays, but with huge ambition of eventually expanding it to serve a larger number of Houstonians. We have served not only the Indian-American community but the entire community, specially those of us who are financially challenged irrespective of color, race, religion, ethnicity, land of origin, immigration status or other factors. We never ask anyone about their health insurance policy or social security number or any other private information, just their contact information. The idea and the spirit behind this was our opportunity to give back to the community and this great country, something that we can, after enjoying the immense gifts, benefits and education that we received in this land of opportunity after migrating from our motherland. The clinic was possible due to the voluntary service of more than 24 physicians of Indian-American origin and more than 12 members of other communities. Each one of them, took out precious time from their weekend Family time to serve those who needed health care.
We continued to work hard towards expansion and finally we were rewarded when the opportunity came in the form of great help and wonderful attitude and commitment of Harris County officials. We received inspiration, encouragement and guidance from our County Judge Mr. Ed Emmett, a great friend of India, Indians and Indian-Americans, Dr. Atul Varadhachary, former Chair of Strategic Planning Committee of Harris County Hospital District Board (now called Harris Health System) and former senior manager at McKinsey & Co., former President of Agennix Inc. and current President of Pratham, USA and many officials of Harris Health, specially Mr. George Masi, Senior Executive Vice President and C.O.O. and Mr. Brian Pitre, Director Facilities Management, at every step.
The dream has now become a reality due to our partnership with Harris Health System and with a very generous donation by great friends of India House, philanthropists and trustees of India House, the Sareen Family, Rita and Bal Sareen, to modify our facility to accommodate the expanded clinic. We also received large special donations for this effort from Angela and Chowdary Yalamanchili and from family of Rajinder Soni. What an expansion it is, from approximately 800 sq. feet to 7500 sq. feet, close to 900 % expansion ! We are now looking forward to its inauguration and ribbon cutting on Friday, January 24th, 2014.
The new India House Sareen Clinic in partnership with Harris Health System will be able to provide complete health care to any and all Harris County residents. It will operate from Monday to Saturday, mostly all day and extended hours on some days, including 7.00 AM and 6.00 PM. Besides providing general health care that Family Practitioners and General Practitioners provide, all Laboratory Facilities will be available. In addition to this, if any special test or special procedure or surgical procedure or hospitalization is necessary, all our clinic patients will be eligible to receive care at the main facilities of Harris Health System like Ben Taub Hospital. No patient, insured or uninsured, will be refused care and the charges will be according to the rules of Harris Health System based on insurance or family income of the uninsured people. While we will prefer prior appointment, we will try to accommodate even the walk-ins if feasible.
In addition to the India House Sareen Harris Health Clinic, we will continue to operate our original clinic at India House, and we will try to make it a clinic of specialists, as so many physician friends are greatly qualified in their specialties and no specialty is out of our reach. This will allow patients to receive not only general care but also specialist’s opinion.
Our next expansion is being planned for this spring and with the partnership with University of Houston and very generous donation of Dr. Dennis Golden, we will start an Eye Clinic where we will be able to provide not only eye glasses but also specialized eye care of all kind. We are also working to establish partnership with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to offer cancer screening like Mammograms and other tests.
We at India House are very happy and thrilled that we can now help not only our own community but everyone in Harris County in this special area and we know that health care occupies a very important place in our life for each and every person. We look forward to continued help and goodwill and financial support from the generous donors and well-wishers and community at large.