Tri-County Clinic celebrates major gift   An anonymous endowment of $500,000 to the Tri-County Community Health Center will help to keep the clinic's doors open for countless years to come.   The clinic is a joint effort between the Northern Illinois University School of Nursing and Kishwaukee Community College, where the main clinic is located. Ten thousand low-income residents of DeKalb, Ogle and Lee counties with little or no insurance have received affordable treatment at Tri-County since the clinic opened in 1994.   However, the federal grant that helped launch the clinic expired two years ago - and no one is turned away for an inability to pay. The gift will support the clinic's annual operations in perpetuity although does not fund the program completely.   "It means the beginning of true, long-term viability," said Mary Uscian, clinic director and an instructor in the NIU School of Nursing. "It is such an enormous sigh of relief. We have really struggled since we lost grant funding. We have received much-needed bridge support from the university over the last several years. We have tremendous moral and in-kind support from the community, but it always requires money to operate programs like this. The whole staff has a real sense, for the first time, that we will be here for the long run. And we need to be."   The numbers bear out that need. Tri-County's 10,000-patient milestone counts individuals, not visits, and came in a swift six years of operation. They are of all ages, races and ethnicities. Ninety-nine percent are classified as low-income; one of three is a minority. Eighty-four percent are underinsured or have no insurance at all, and an amazing 70 percent have no previous relationship with a primary care provider.   Uscian calls the staggering headcount of patients "a clear signal of how much need there is in the community."   "On one level, it's very exciting for us," she said. "On the other level, it does remind us there are thousands of people in our community who struggle to get by day to day, even in the fabulous economy. We have made a commitment to these folks and (with the gift) we will be able to sustain that, to meet that commitment."   Services offered are much like those at a family doctor's office: physical examinations for work and school, annual Pap smears and treatment for everything from sore throats, colds and flu bugs to bladder infections, diabetes and high blood pressure.   While providing affordable health care to the community is a prime mission of the bilingual clinic and its two satellites - offices opened in 1995 and 1998 in Rochelle and just this spring in DeKalb - they also serve students of nursing at NIU and Kishwaukee. Every undergraduate in the nursing school and most graduate students in the nurse practitioner program practice at the clinic during their studies at NIU.   "The donor was excited about the fact that it addressed the educational needs of two colleges in this area - Kishwaukee Community College and the NIU School of Nursing - as well as serving the health care needs of residents in the tri-county area who have no insurance or are underinsured," said Mallory M. Simpson, president of the NIU Foundation and associate vice president for NIU Development and University Relations.   "What is truly exciting is the generosity of the people who are sharing," said Dr. Marilyn Frank-Stromborg, chair of the NIU School of Nursing. "It shows a real commitment to the School of Nursing and to the community to continue the clinic and the wonderful things it does."   Clinic officials have worked on raising funds themselves - they received $28,000 this year from the Monroe E. Trout Premier Cares Award program - but have wondered year to year whether the clinic will cease to exist.   Uscian admits to "jumping up and down" when she learned of the endowment. "I said, 'Oh, my God, I can't believe it,' " she said. "It's just a real feeling of success, of elation, of relief. (The staff) are very proud of their accomplishments, and they should be."   More news...