Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic

About Us - Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic

In 1997, Dr. Gary Burnstein, a Cardiologist, began caring for patients from Grace Centers of Hope, in a small room at the Grace Centers of Hope mission in Pontiac, Michigan. Dr. Burnstein passed away in September 2003.

Dr. Michael Yerkey and his wife, Hiroko a RN, decided to follow in Dr. Burnstein’s footsteps. In October 2003, Dr. Yerkey and his team conceived the idea of a much larger clinic in Pontiac to serve uninsured and underinsured families for all of Oakland County.

A team of REACH volunteers from the Kensington Community Church, under the direction of Jeff Gower, worked non-stop from January 2004 through October 2004 to make this dream a reality. They renovated the building into a full operating medical clinic, dental clinic and pharmacy.

Dr. Yerkey was called to active duty with the US Air Force in July of that year, but the renovations continued as Dr. Katherine Pitus volunteered to lead the medical team. With great excitement, the opening of the new clinic took place October 2004.

With a major set back in the spring of 2005, the clinic had an unexpected fire that closed the clinic until repairs could be done. Once again, the generosity of the Grace Centers of Hope was there. They allowed us the use of their church to continue to see our patients on Thursday evenings.

Our clinic reopened in December 2005. Our volunteer team sees approximately 150 — 200 patients and fills 300-400 prescriptions a month. The new clinic has four examination rooms, one procedure room, two dental examination rooms with x-ray capabilities, and a pharmacy/laboratory. This new facility supports the vision for more doctors, nurses, dentists and non-medical volunteers to reach at least 5,500 patients per year.