The Summit Community Care Clinic just weeks away from its annual Soup for the Soul fundraiser. As the event draws near, the clinic announced that it will be recognizing Dr. Charles Lackey. 

According to a news release, Lackey was among a group of physicians in the 1990s who recognized “a growing need to provide medical care to uninsured residents” in Summit County. He was working as a physician at a private practice when he helped open the Summit Community Care Clinic, which was a twice-weekly, all-volunteer medical clinic in 1993. 

The news release says Lackey began his medical career in Summit County after his residency in the 1980s. In the four decades since, he “started his own medical practice, worked and retired from High Country Health Care and joined the Care Clinic as a full time physician in 2017.” He also provided emergency medicine in Frisco and Leadville as well as served as a family physician.  

It was through his experience working in the emergency room that Lackey became interested in working with uninsured patients. In the release, he’s quoted saying that 50% of the patients that visit the emergency room actually belong in a doctor’s office. Because they do not have insurance, they visit the emergency room where they cannot be turned away. 

Today, the Summit Community Care Clinic has facilities in Summit, Lake and Park counties where it provides services to nearly 9,000 patients annually. The clinic provides medical, behavioral health and dental services. The release says that most of the clinc’s patients “are local residents who provide vital services in Summit County’s resort-based economy.” 

Lackey will be honored at the clinic’s Soup for the Soul fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. on March 25 at the Keystone Conference Center. The release says that proceeds will “support health care services for people with little or no insurance.” Individual tickets range from $55 to $75 and can be purchased via SoupForTheSoulSummit.org. For more information, call 970-406-4823.