Beyond Vizcaya is a production of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in association with our community partners. Together, we’re building a legacy of story sharing that honors Miami’s past, illuminates its present, and safeguards its future.

Welcome to Beyond Vizcaya, the show that features the people and places neighboring Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida. I’m Jeff. And before we introduce today’s guest, I’d like to encourage you to check out all of our community focused content at beyondvizcaya.org. While you’re there, we’d love for you to sign up for our email list so we can share all of our freshest content with you. Today, we’re turning the spotlight on one of our partners in content creation, Care Resource. Through education, prevention, research, care and treatment, and support services, Care Resource improves upon the health and overall quality of life of our diverse South Florida communities in need. Today, joining us is Dr. Steven Santiago, Chief Medical Officer and Interim CEO of Care Resource. In a moment, Dr. Santiago will share more about the work of Care Resource, but first we’d like to take you behind the scenes into the Care Resource Headquarters in downtown Miami.

The most important thing that we provide here at Care Resource is a welcoming environment for all of our patients in South Florida to come, regardless of ability to pay. We take care of patients of all walks of life, whether insured or uninsured, and provide medical care to them, as well as a number of other services.

(01:53)
Dr. Steven Santiago, interim chief executive officer and chief medical officer at Care Resource. Care Resource Community Health Centers is a federally qualified health center, and we provide services in South Florida to the medically underserved, underprivileged, and also just anybody who needs medical attention. Care Resource is the result of a merger in 1998 of two separate entities. First was Health Crisis Network, which started in 1983 at the start of the HIV epidemic in South Florida. And 1989 was when Community Research Initiative of South Florida was formed in order to help bring lifesaving HIV medications to the people of the United States.

(02:46)
Care Resource first started as an AID service organization, and then with the vision of our board of directors expanded to become a community health center. So in 2009, we applied for and received funding to become a federally qualified health center. And as such, we expanded our reach beyond just HIV and HIV prevention to include all services in an outpatient setting for our South Florida communities in need. The main thing that we added when we moved back into our facility here at 3510 Biscayne Boulevard is pediatric services. So we have a very small pediatric wing. We have about 250 patients that are specific to this location, and we are looking to grow that even further.

(03:40)
Beyond that, we have a slew of other services. Care Resource has always believed in being a one-stop shop, so to speak. So we have nutrition services as well as a food pantry for patients with HIV. We’re the only food pantry in South Florida for that population. In addition, we have dental services, we have behavioral health services, including medication-assisted treatment for patients with opioid use disorder. We have a health promotions department that patients can come to for preventive testing, such as STI tests, glucose testing, blood pressure testing without having to be a medical patient. In addition, we have a pharmacy. So Care Resource currently has two pharmacies, soon to have three more at our locations in order to service our patients and also the community at large. We are a community pharmacy, and it makes a difference when it’s a pharmacy that is at a community health center because we really know how to take care of our patients and provide the most economical resource for them in terms of their pharmacy needs.

Welcome back. And thank you, Dr. Santiago, for joining us today.

My pleasure.

So want to step back a little bit and for you to tell us about your journey. How did you come to be in Miami and at Care Resource?

Well, it’s quite a long journey, but I’ll try to make it brief. I was born and raised in New York City, which as most people know, is one of the epicenters for the HIV epidemic in the early ’80s. I was born of a Puerto Rican family, and of course, Hispanics and other minorities were among the top people getting infected with HIV. And also, I was a member of the LGBT population at the time. So being gay, I also was affected by having friends that were infected and, of course, died during the early part of the epidemic.

(05:59)
I decided to become a family physician. I went to UMD&J in New Jersey and decided that I wanted to come to South Florida to get away from the cold and join an existing HIV practice. So actually, my first time in Florida was 1992 when I came to explore Miami to see where I might want to work. And I came upon, via a friend, an existing HIV practice. They were looking for somebody young, somebody that was part of the community, somebody that could take over so that they could expand providing services to the HIV patient population. It was called Comprehensive Immune Care, later became called Stratagen Health. And then I merged my practice into Care Resource in 1998, which is when we started to provide medical services to the community.

All right. Well, we’re going to get back to the work of Care Resource in a little bit, but wanted to point out first that Vizcaya and Care Resource share a connection through the White Party. Can you tell us a little bit about what the White Party was? How did it start? And actually, how did it land at Vizcaya?

Yes. Well, so Care Resource, as I mentioned earlier, is the union of two nonprofits, one of which is called Health Crisis Network and that started in the early ’80s, 1983. And they, in order to raise funds for their social services programs, they started a party, was basically a house party in the mid ’80s. And then one of its members thought, “Well, why don’t we consider having it someplace more spectacular like Vizcaya?” And so we then, with the approval of Vizcaya, of course, moved it there. It turns out that there was a wedding that had just happened that day. The decoration was still up when we got there and it was all in white and we decided to call it the White Party. Very, very exciting times.

(08:22)
My first White Party was in 1992 when I came to visit coincidentally. I came in November of 1992 and right after Hurricane Andrew, and I did attend the first White Party. I remember it just being overwhelmed with how spectacular it was, over the top, very glamorous. I remember everybody saying, “Oh, Madonna’s here.” I’m not sure if she really was. I didn’t see her. But in those days, Madonna seemed to be everywhere, at every nightclub, and at every major party. So it was really a spectacular event that turned something that was very difficult, people dying from HIV into something joyful and with purpose because we needed something to help raise money. In those days, there was not the government grants that we have now to help us with our mission to take care of people with HIV.

(09:28)
In those days, it was basically people volunteering to bring food to those dying of HIV at home, provide a buddy system to help take them to the medical appointments, provide other social services. And the money that we raised was critical for us to continue our mission in terms of taking care of patients. And it meant a lot to us.

So we’ve been looking at some footage that as part of our partnership with Care Resource, you all shared your archive of White Party media with us. And that’s an area of Vizcaya’s history that we don’t necessarily own or have documented. So it’s such an important part of what happened in Miami and the White Parties were an influence having White Parties all over the world, basically. So it was an inspiration to that. Wanted to talk about maybe some of the more tangible impacts that the White Party had. You mentioned that you raised a lot of funds. What happened as a result of raising those funds and also raising the awareness?

Well, yes. Unfortunately, there’s still an importance to continue raising awareness around HIV. We know that South Florida remains one of the epicenters in the country with regards to new HIV infections. But going back a little bit, in terms of Care Resource, our operating budget in the late ’80s, early ’90s was around 1 to $2 million a year, very, very small amount of money for this amount of services that we had. Fortunately, the federal government did start funding to help counter the HIV epidemic, and we were able to get money through the Ryan White program to help with our services, both medical, case management, social services, and also via our Food For Life Network food pantry.

(11:40)
And that was a significant benefit to the community. In addition, Care Resource was one of the first health organizations in the country to be part of a network, a national network of research that allowed for the approval of most of the medications, the initial medications that came to market to help people live longer, healthy lives. And by the time I joined Care Research, which, excuse me, when I moved to South Florida, which was 1994, around 1995, 1996 is when HIV started to become a more manageable disease. Although the medications had more side effects, people were able to live longer lives and then gradually the medications became more convenient, less pills and less side effects. So the White Party revenue that we attained not only brought the recognition to the disease, but also allowed us to raise funds, significant funds in the beginning to help supplement our budget and therefore help the community.

So you mentioned that HIV became a much more manageable disease. Since the White Party era, as a result of that, the communities you serve have expanded quite a bit. So I want you to tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah. Well, so it’s interesting. Definitely the White Party helped us during that phase when we really needed the extra income. Then what happened was as HIV became a manageable disease, and there were many less people dying from HIV, we had the effect that, of course, donations dried up because people saw it as less of an urgent problem to deal with. We had a significant decrease in donations, and actually the cost to produce the event dramatically increased, of course, as most things do. Therefore, it ended up being that it was costing us just as much to produce the event as the donations that we were receiving.

(14:00)
So that’s what made us decide to stop having the White Party and focus on other forms of donations and also increase other forms of generating revenue. So after the White Party era, we became a community health center. We are a federally qualified health center, which means we care for the entire community in our catchment area. We take care of anybody regardless of ability to pay. So we have gone from what was called an AIDS service organization to really a community health center. And so we expanded not just to the LGBT population, but also to the South Florida communities in need, as you mentioned earlier. So Black, Hispanic, white, anybody in our community, regardless of their background. And that has been very rewarding.

(15:03)
It was a challenge, but because of the quality work that we always did in taking care of our patients with HIV criteria that we’re judged on by the federal government through Ryan White funding, we were primed for being able to be the best federally qualified health center in the area. And then that has, of course, allowed us to take care of both insured and uninsured patients and expand from adult medicine to pediatric and so forth, provide behavioral health services, psychiatry, infectious disease population, and really anybody in the community, as I said.

All right. Well, we got a sense of how Care Resource has grown. Where do you see Care Resource’s services expanding into the future?

Well, Care Resource recently underwent two major renovations to our facilities. So we have currently four major facilities, clinics in South Florida, one in Miami Beach, one in Midtown Miami, one in Little Havana, and one in Broward County. Actually, that was our first FQHC designated location. So we’ve grown not just in terms of the number of locations, but in terms of the services we’ve provided. So now, for the last 12 years, we provided dental care. That’s one of our fastest growing programs because dental care tends to be unaffordable for the majority of people in a community. Most people would prioritize their medical care versus having dental insurance, for example. And so that really, we have quite a long wait time because it’s affordable dental care, which we know can sometimes be very unaffordable.

(17:01)
And different locations have prioritized different programs. So in Little Havana, for example, where there are more women with children, lower income populations, we’ve definitely spearheaded the pediatric program more there. And then in Broward County, which was the epicenter for the opioid epidemic, we started providing medication assisted treatment, as I mentioned earlier, and that’s something that we’re still focusing on. But that program has grown so much that we actually were able to get funding from Dr. Peter Sinelli, who unfortunately passed away last year. However, he did leave us an inheritance to build a new facility to serve that particular population and the other needs that they may have aside from mental health needs, for example, medical, dental, et cetera.

(18:06)
So we see ourselves as always being willing to take on the care of patients in different populations. We started taking care of patients with HIV or at risk for HIV. We expanded to rapid HIV testing and treatment. We expanded to the trans population. We then transitioned to also provide service to the medication assisted treatment population, which is not a population that everybody wants to take care of. And we definitely see ourselves as taking care of those that are the underdogs and that others perhaps may not want to accept the challenge of taking care of. I see us as continuing the expansion.

(18:59)
So we’ve expanded in Midtown to a location that’s twice as big as it used to be at 3510 Biscayne Boulevard. Now we need to grow into those shoes. We also have a new Little Havana location, which is over three times as big as we had before, expanding, for example, from six dental chairs to 10 and providing additional services and including pharmacy services. So Care Resource, as of two years ago, now has its own pharmacy, and we are expanding to have pharmacies at each location because the patients benefit, they want and benefit from having a pharmacy that is part of the health center, because that pharmacy will be able to access the patient’s medical records, really be able to provide individualized, customized services to the patient, and make sure that patients don’t fall through the cracks, make sure that patients that are requesting refills have had appointments to be seen.

(20:03)
And it really is the ideal situation for patients. And of course, any revenues that we get from taking care of our patients via our pharmacy, go back into the health center, into the community to help expand our services and improve our services for the residents of South Florida.

So you’ve just told us a story of how Care Resource grows and expands to meet the needs of the community around it. I just wonder if there were any particular pressing health issues facing South Florida residents today that you’re trying to address?

Yes. So it’s very interesting that we were just notified last week of something quite interesting. So we received federal funding through the County of Miami-Dade for ending the HIV epidemic, which as you know, it’s an ongoing battle, which was set back unfortunately by COVID. As part of that grant that we received, which was for us to provide mobile services to areas that are seen as hotspots. We did receive a phone call last week from the health department letting us know that Midtown Miami is actually one of the locations in Miami-Dade County with the most new HIV cases. And that poises us perfectly. We’re two blocks from Midtown and we are jumping on the opportunity to get into that area, make sure that people are aware of HIV testing patients and bringing them into care in order to prevent this hotspot from spreading even further. So that’s just one of the ways that we use our relationships with the community, the collaborations that we have with other entities to serve our communities.

(22:06)
Unfortunately, aside from HIV, of course, because we don’t just focus on HIV anymore, in fact, HIV is only about probably 40% of our client base. The rest is really HIV prevention and also just general primary care. We have a lot of need in the community for providing quality medical care. And in fact, Care Resource Community Health Centers has the most gold badges that the federal government has given to a health center in the state of Florida because we not just believe in providing care to patients, but also providing quality care. And by quality care, we mean doing cancer screening, hypertension control, diabetes control, things that the minority community are at highest risks for.

(23:01)
Blacks and Hispanics are at higher risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, et cetera. So those are some major issues, obesity management. We’ve taken charge of helping our patients that cannot afford to care for their overweight or obesity problems at affordable rates, and that will help decrease their risk of complications from problems like hypertension and diabetes. But aside from that, we really would like to expand care resource to other communities in South Florida. There are other community health centers that provide excellent service in South Florida, but as long as it’s with their blessing and the approval of HRSA, the federal government health agency that provides funding, we would like to expand to areas that have a shortage of community health center services so that we can help more people.

Wow. What a dynamic environment. So I imagine probably some folks are listening to this interview and they want to know how to be a part of it, how to help and support Care Resource. What are the best ways for them to get involved?

Well, I appreciate you asking that question. Although we do receive federal funding, the cost of providing care has risen astronomically. The challenges that face most enterprises in the country, such as staffing expenses, salaries, rise in living costs, inflation, those types of things have affected us as well and have created financial strains for us. So if anybody’s viewing this and wants to help support Care Resource, we encourage you to do so. Go to our website. There are links to donate. There are links so you can see the kind of services that we are providing and how you can help us to continue and grow the services that we need to and want to provide to our community.

Dr. Santiago, this has been a great conversation. I want to thank you so much for joining us on the program.

Oh, my pleasure, Jeff. Thank you so much for the work that you do as well and for our relationship with Vizcaya. And we’re looking forward to going Beyond Vizcaya and thank you for helping our health center.

Awesome. Well, that’s it for this edition of the Beyond Vizcaya Partners Spotlight. We’ll be producing more of these in the future on beyondvizcaya.org and invite you to check out our resources for contributing your own story there. Until next time, I’m Jeff. Take care, everyone.

Thank you.