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Dr. Donald H. Hofreuter is shown after receiving the ‘Dignity in Healthcare’ Award from Wheeling Health Right. Shown with him are Wheeling Health Right Executive Director Kathie Brown, at left, and Dee Phillips, executive secretary.
WHEELING — Wheeling Health Right presented Dr. Donald H. Hofreuter with the “Dignity in Healthcare” Award, an accolade specifically created in his honor. Clinic officials wished to celebrate Dr. Hofreuter’s role in founding, leading and supporting Wheeling Health Right for the past 35 years. Hofreuter was to be celebrated in 2020 at a gala in his honor, an event canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Born and raised in Wheeling, Hofreuter launched his medical education and career in New York. He brought back the lessons he learned, most about the necessity for compassionate indigent care, to the Ohio Valley. He helped found Religious Effort to Assist the Poor (R.E.A.P.), a group that provided meals and other services to needy residents. Fast-forward to the 1980s, when several physicians, including Hofreuter, were often seeing patients on a charity basis in their own practices and the “Health Right” concept was introduced to the area. Hofreuter finally started to realize his lifelong dream of a more organized system of health care for the neediest patients.
“He truly exemplifies dignity for the underserved,” Wheeling Health Right Executive Director Kathie Brown said, praising her mentor of 30 years. “Before we had Medicaid, one of the difficulties was finding physicians that were willing to see patients on a charity basis. Dr. Hofreuter worked very hard to get somebody to see those patients. He had a good relationship with all the physicians in Wheeling, so he was able to arrange that care. He also used his connections to help us get the funding we needed.”
Dr. James Comerci, volunteer medical director for Wheeling Health Right, said Hofreuter’s leadership has been pivotal in continuing the mission Hofreuter began 35 years ago.
“When he was about ready to think about retiring, he decided that wasn’t for him and he came back to Wheeling Health Right. He has not just provided medical care, but valuable education to the staff at Wheeling Health Right and he continues to do that today,” said Dr. Comerci.
Hofreuter told of a reluctant Wheeling Health Right patient, a man who returned from U.S. military service with post-traumatic stress disorder in need of much medical attention. “He walked to his appointments,” Hofreuter recalled. “Unfortunately, he was in Marshall County; 15 miles away. But anybody that would walk 15 miles to be treated says something about your institution.”
Hofreuter relays many stories of his early practice. He can recite some of his awards and accolades, much less reluctantly. “It’s the individual stories I have of my one-on-one times with my patients that make my time as a physician special. It’s about the people,” Hofreuter said.
That’s what makes him most worthy of this award, according to Brown and Comerci and others.
“There are a lot of people behind this award that makes Wheeling a city where charity care is available. It’s not available in all cities,” Hofreuter said. “It’s very easy to be involved with Wheeling Health Right because it’s the ultimate in charity care.”
Call the clinic at 304-233-9323 for more information on enrollment in Wheeling Health Right services.
