A medical clinic with short wait times, no waitlist and low-cost health care can be hard to come by. However, a small clinic in Katy offers it all to low-income and uninsured individuals.

Christ Clinic began in 2000 as a weekly wellness clinic in the gym at Memorial Lutheran Church. Seven years later, the clinic moved to a facility on Kingsland Boulevard with four exam rooms and operated three days a week.

Now, Christ Clinic has a new space at The Katy Gardens with 12 treatment rooms, a play area and an area for physical therapy, as well as other modern amenities, and receives around 12,000 visits a year, Executive Director Lara Mautz said.

“Christ Clinic is growing faster than I ever imagined, and I can just feel and know that God is doing something big in this place, and I think it's going to be far bigger than what any of us envisioned,” Mautz said.

How it works

Christ Clinic provides tailored primary, preventative and specialty care, as well as low or no-cost prescription medications, lab tests and behavioral health services, Mautz said.

All physicians at the clinic are volunteers, and to avoid having a waitlist, the clinic reserves about 50% of its daily slots for walk-ins. Routine visits and follow-ups are scheduled in advance, but for the rest of the time, the clinic operates similarly to an urgent care.

Patients are asked to contribute a small amount of money for their care, which makes up around 10% of the operational budget, but Mautz said the fee is waived for those who truly cannot afford it.

“A lot of our patients are having to decide between how am I going to manage my medical care and afford my groceries and my rent, and so that's really stressful,” Mautz said. “When they come to us, we're able to make it where they can hopefully do both.”

Funding the project

As for finances, Mautz said the clinic has a budget close to $3 million, with the majority of donations coming from individual donors. Recently, the clinic announced a new initiative called Innovative Wellness that allows individuals in the community to care for themselves and others.

Located next to Christ Clinic, the Innovative Wellness Center is open to all individuals who can afford a membership and resembles a spa-like environment. A membership includes access to state-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen chambers, saunas and cold plunges, along with functional medicine such as IV therapy.

Along with the opening of the wellness center and the membership fees that will benefit Christ Clinic, Mautz has more big plans for the organization.

She said she hopes to offer a few elective surgeries, such as colonoscopies, in the future and plans to expand to 26 treatment rooms in 2026.

“I think the other thing is that our patients are incredibly grateful people and a lot of them have gone without for a really long time, so they're super grateful,” Mautz said. “I think that the providers just feel that.”

• 1040 Schlipf Road, Katy
• www.christclinickaty.org