St. Luke Community Clinic chief willing to try something new

By Joe Beck -- jbeck@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- The new executive director of St. Luke Community Clinic has shown a willingness to try something new throughout his life, a trait he believes will be very helpful in his new job.

Glenn R. Burdick's resume suggests he not only embraces change, but charges toward it and then clamps it in a headlock.

"I am a great believer in lifelong learning and practiced that as an educator," Burdick said. "I'm living out my creed."

Before joining St. Luke on July 1, he was a teacher, a school administrator, a departmental chairman at Shenandoah University, a corporate executive, a nurse at Winchester Medical Center and, since 2009, a part-time registered nurse/case worker with Blue Ridge Hospice. He also served as superintendent of Winchester Public Schools for a decade.

His academic degrees include a doctorate in education, supervision and administration from the University of Virginia.

The varied experience makes Burdick, 62, confident he is just the sort of leader who can guide St. Luke through the most uncertain period facing it since its founding in 1996.

"I come in at an interesting time. That's what makes it attractive and challenging," he said of the changes bearing down on free clinics such as St. Luke.

The changes stem from the sweeping health care reform bill passed by Congress in 2010. The new law means that many free clinics are facing a sharp drop in the number of patients they serve over the next few years. Or maybe not.

Under the impending reforms, more patients currently receiving medical care at free clinics will be covered by the federal Medicaid program and therefore no longer eligible for services at St. Luke, which is not allowed to take Medicaid patients. St. Luke served 987 patients from July 1, 2010, through June 30.

But Burdick said he can easily foresee another outcome in which health care reform is scrapped by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling or by a new president and Congress.

Meanwhile, unemployment remains high, the economy continues to founder, and the number of working poor without health insurance grows, thus increasing demand for care at St. Luke.

The fate of health care reform also will make a huge difference in determining whether St. Luke will have to convert much of its record keeping to electronic databases called for in the new law.

The cloudy future requires Burdick to keep an eye on public opinion polls, election returns and court rulings, all while never losing sight of the clinic's primary mission of caring for needy patients.

Government regulations, new and old, also demand his attention.

"There's a lot of administrative detail that people at first glance wouldn't expect," he said of his first months on the job. "On the other hand, sometimes I wish I had a little more guidance."

C. Thomas Rhyne, chairman of the St. Luke board of directors, said those involved in Burdick's hiring found someone with rare qualifications.

"He had all the combinations of someone who had management experience but who also had professional medical experience," Rhyne said.

"He came several weeks early and learned the ropes from our former director and picked up the ball. He's working very well with the staff and will certainly lead them into some new ideas and new territory, as well as the board of directors."