Burton-Garcia eventually turned her attention to those in need back home and founded Sacred Heart Community Clinic as a way to help them.
“God gave me a dream to do something in my own backyard,” Burton-Garcia said. “There’s people here that need help just as much as those in Central America that we would go visit.”
Sacred Heart Community Clinic provides an array of free medical services to low-income people without health insurance in Williamson County.
To qualify for care, a patient must live in Williamson County, be uninsured and have an income below 200% of the federal poverty level. For an individual, that is currently around $25,700, and for a family of four it is around $53,000.
The scope of care provided at the clinic includes acute care for ailments such as fevers and stomach aches as well as chronic care for ongoing conditions including diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.
Sacred Heart also provides nutrition counseling, laboratory services and diabetes education. The clinic recently expanded to offer dental care.
Services come at no cost to patients, but the clinic does request donations from patients who are able to contribute money.
Williamson County officials occasionally allocate money for the clinic, but Sacred Heart relies on donations for the vast majority of its funding, according to Burton-Garcia.
Patients are not the only ones who can donate. The clinic also accepts donations from community members, and each year staff leaders hold a large fundraising event—this year it is in April—called the Heart to Heart Gala that brings in around $100,000 annually, according to Burton-Garcia.
The clinic also relies on dozens of volunteers to make up the bulk of its workforce.
Burton-Garcia said the clinic has 15 formal full- and part-time staff members and around 50 volunteer workers, a number that took a hit last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even through staffing shortfalls, clinic workers continue to help as many patients as possible.
“We fill a void that the health care system can’t fix,” Burton-Garcia said. “Our patients are very, very grateful that they have someplace to go that’s nonjudgemental and that truly cares.”
Sacred Heart Community Clinic
620 Round Rock West Drive, Round Rock
512-716-3929
https://sacredheartclinic.org
Hours: Mon. 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; Tue. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thu. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Fri. 8 a.m.-noon; closed Wed., Sat.-Sun.
