Mpls. teen medical clinic gains new owner, longer future

Dr. Clark Smith was a young medical student when he first volunteered at the free clinic on Chicago Avenue.

It was back in the early 1970s, when the Teen Age Medical Service was a novelty, offering two-minute pregnancy tests and confidential care to anyone who walked in.

Today, "TAMS is an icon," says Smith, head of pediatrics at Children's Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota. But a few months ago, he thought he was going to have to shut it down.

Instead, he is handing off the financially struggling clinic to a new owner in hopes of giving it a new lease on life.

In February, TAMS will become part of People's Center Health Services, a nonprofit community clinic in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, after four decades as an offshoot of the Minneapolis hospital.

Smith said Children's, which subsidized the teen clinic to the tune of $1 million a year, simply couldn't afford to lose money on it any longer.

It had planned to close TAMS, which serves about 3,000 adolescents and young adults each year, by the end of 2010 if no one rescued it.

But Peggy Metzer, CEO of the People's Center, said she believes TAMS can survive in a streamlined fashion and continue to serve teenagers as part of her organization.

"We can make it work because our care model is much less expensive than Children's," she said.

One advantage: as a federally designated "safety net" clinic, it gets more federal money to subsidize care.

Plus, says Metzer, "we are very, very good at implementing financial turnarounds."

TAMS made a name for itself in the Woodstock era by catering to teens in need, regardless of ability to pay, says Dr. David Aughey, the medical director, who joined the clinic in 1987. For many kids -- homeless, pregnant, neglected -- "we're the only adult in their lives," he said. Eventually, it evolved from pregnancy tests and family planning to full-service primary care.

Wrote another: "I think of TAMS as a blessing."

At its peak, TAMS had four physicians, a nurse practitioner and a number of nurses, therapists and counselors, Aughey said. But recently, as finances tightened and the outlook dimmed, many staffers left. Aughey, one of two remaining doctors, will leave, too, when the clinic changes hands.

Ultimately, the TAMS staff will shrink by about half, Metzer said, but those who are left will work closely with the center's own medical staff, which treats patients of all ages.

Ironically, the People's Center also is a legacy of the '60s and ran into its own financial crisis in 2003. But it survived by imposing what Metzer calls "really strong business principles," including a strict budget, and applying for federal designation as a community clinic. That opened the door to new government funds, including more than $2 million from the 2009 federal stimulus package, which made money available to community clinics.

Metzer said TAMS will probably stay where it is for awhile, in a 100-year-old house near Children's in Minneapolis, but she's looking for a bigger location in the same neighborhood. She also wants to tap donors to help keep it afloat. She's hoping enough people still believe in its mission.