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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Sunnyvale resident Dr. Ann Verstraete has worked as a general practitioner at the Indian Health Center for 23 years. She recently was reinstated as the center's medical director.
Sunnyvale doctor has healing powers
Resident physician has devoted life to Indian Health Center
By Jana Seshadri
Sunnyvale resident Dr. Ann Verstraete has one consuming passion--"The Indian Health Center is my life," says the Belgian-born physician.
She has devoted 23 years of her life to serving and helping the American Indian community at the nonprofit community health-care center in San Jose.
Born in Louvain, Belgium, in 1942, Verstraete says:"She is passionate about medicine." She completed her initial training in medicine at the University of Louvain, one of the oldest universities in Europe, and moved to the United States in 1969. During her internship at the Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Verstraete chose to rotate her duties among ER, pediatrics, internal medicine, ear, nose and throat and obstetrics and gynecology.
At the Indian Health Center, Verstraete puts her diverse training to good use.
In addition to medical and dental services, the Indian Health Center, located at 1330 Meridian Ave., offers several outreach and counseling programs. In 1999 the center became the first community health center in Santa Clara County to receive accreditation from the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care and only the second in the Bay Area to receive national accreditation. This opened funding avenues for the Center, which helped the growth of its client referral system and its WIC (Women, Infant and Children) program.
"We have seen about 3,000 families on the WIC program alone," Verstraete says.
The WIC program provides nutrition classes, which stress healthy cooking involving high fiber and vegetables. It also teaches pregnant mothers about breast-feeding and birth control.
"We are a community clinic," said the 61-year-old Verstraete. "Even though our mission is to serve the American Indian community, we cannot refuse to see any patient who lives in the area--that is, within 30 miles of the center."
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Christa Bradley, a community health worker at the Indian Health Center, teaches Ross Gutts, also a community health worker, how to take blood pressure. The center offers not only medical and dental services, but also several counselling programs.
Receiving federal and state funds earmarked to serve American Indians has enabled the center to focus not only on medical issues but on welfare and wellness issues as a whole, including mental health. Its primary focus is to encourage, educate and empower American Indians to seek wellness and enhance their quality of life. The center tries to address problems like hypertension, high cholesterol and substance abuse issues through active screening programs and ongoing education and research.
Verstraete started her medical career working for 1 1/2 years in private practice and then worked for a health maintenance organization for a year, until it folded. She was only the second doctor to work at the Indian Health Center when she started there 23 years ago.
"I like it better than private practice," says Verstraete, alluding to the efforts of herself and many other individuals, who work at the center to provide services to everyone who works through its doors, without the concern of monetary benefits.
One of Verstraete's visions for the center is to see it evolve into a broader facility, incorporating more preventive care and outreach programs along with its current medical program and become more of a wellness center.
The culture and tradition of the Native Americans, the very first settlers in North America, has not been taught very widely, and Verstraete hopes to change that by adding Native American art and culture courses to the center's services.
Verstraete's duties and responsibilities as medical director of the center keep her busy, and she will begin to work there three days a week next month, as opposed to her current schedule of two days a week. As dedicated to medicine and her patients as she is, Verstraete is diligent about her directorial duties, which include reviewing the medical part of the grants, hiring and firing of personnel and supervising the operations of the center.
Particular about fitness and exercise, Verstraete, who is also married to a doctor, spends about five to six hours every week doing step aerobics or walking.
Verstraete was reinstated as medical director of the center last week, after a six-month hiatus. How long does she plan to stay at the center? "As long as they need me," she says.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
