Sam Valentine, other patient representatives help coordinate services at Eastern Iowa Health Center

CEDAR RAPIDS — As a patient representative at the Eastern Iowa Health Center, Sam Valentine is the first face patients see as they walk into the clinic.

Valentine and other patient representatives are the first point of contact at the organization, a position that enables them to serve as the eyes and ears of the federally qualified health center in Cedar Rapids. And in that role, they help the organization serve the whole patient.

In addition to scheduling appointments and coordinating financial assistance, patient representatives also determine patients’ non-medical needs, Valentine said. That can include calling an Uber for patients to get back home or connecting them with social workers or coordinating appointments at other service providers.

The Eastern Iowa Health Center is a federally funded safety net health care provider for thousands of medically underserved individuals and other vulnerable populations across the region. Officials have estimated more than 90 percent of its patients are living at or below the 200 percent federal poverty level.

“One of the things I really love about the job I do, and just with the Eastern Iowa Health Center, is just being able to offer a lot of resources that a lot of other clinics do not,” Valentine said. “Homeless patients come in and they may need clothing or they may need a phone, and we can help them with that. I like being able to help them with not just their health care, but other resources as well.”

In the eight years since she started working at the health center, the needs of patients have remained the same, she said: There are still those who need help accessing transportation, shelter or food, among other resources.

But events like the derecho that struck Cedar Rapids in August 2020 also introduce new challenges for patients.

Valentine recalled a conversation with a patient who arrived for an appointment after the derecho. The woman’s home was damaged, and she was sleeping in a tent outside and was struggling with needing clothes and food. Valentine connected that patient with a social worker, who could find those resources for that patient.

Patients “remember the help that they’ve received or the person that they felt helped them,” Valentine said.

Valentine, who moved to Cedar Rapids as a child with her family in 1990, said she had always wanted to work in the health care industry because of family members who worked in the field.

And according to others at the organization, Valentine is one of the most well-liked employees among patients. She was nominated for the organization’s STAR Award by Jill O’Hara, dental clinic manager at the Eastern Iowa Health Center, after the pair worked together during COVID-19 vaccine clinics.

“I was just impressed with her service,” O’Hara said.

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