OUR HISTORY

The Legacy of St. Luke’s Family Practice

How did the idea for St. Luke’s Family Practice come about, and how did we turn it from a dream into a reality? Our story tells it all.

2000

The Beginning

The idea for St. Luke’s Family Practice came about during a time of prayerful reflection during Dr. Forester’s family vacation. He wanted to find a way to make modern medicine more personable and equitable, but he needed help bringing the idea to life.

2002

Two Doctors Instead of One

Dr. Forester pitched the idea to Dr. Heck. Recovering from a serious illness, Dr. Heck was captivated by the idea and encouraged Dr. Forester to join him in the endeavor. The two began to plan the practice.

2003

Board of Directors

Experienced business people in the community volunteered their time and formed St. Luke’s initial Board of Directors. The tremendous effort and sacrifice of Pete Herrmann (Board president), Terry Withrow CPA (treasurer) and John Dunn, Esq. (secretary) were invaluable to getting St. Luke’s up and running.

2003–2004

Community Outreach

With a plan in place, Dr. Forester and Dr. Heck began marketing St. Luke’s to the community.

2004

Officially Open

St. Luke’s Family Practice opened for business. Member Patients now had the ability to pay for service to receive better access and more time with their personal physician, all while providing the underserved with free, compassionate care.

2005

Trailblazing for Nonprofit Medical Care

After almost two years or legal wrangling, and with the help of the Bright Family Foundation and a team of Washington, D.C., lawyers, St. Luke’s prevailed in their application to receive retroactive 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt status, St. Luke’s was the first-in-the-nation nonprofit medical office, a model that has now been replicated with our assistance several times around the country.

2007–2008

Growing

Hilda Sielicki, RN/NP, made a huge sacrifice and left Modesto Junior College as Director of Student Health to join our team. The practice was rapidly outgrowing the original 850-square-foot office space on Florida Avenue.

2010–2015

Expansion

People standing in front of the building entrance

Board member Jim Applegate and Dr. Forester selected our current office location and began design and remodeling. Karin Hennings came on board as Executive Director and successfully upgraded our computer network, electronic health records, bookkeeping, and budgeting, and began the complex process needed to restructure our organization as a California Social Purpose Corporation.

2012–2015

5,000 Underserved Per Year

Non-member patient visits peaked at 5,000 underserved visits per year. We continued to grow our healthcare provider and operations team by bringing on Ericka Carranza-Perez, PA, and Erica Gonzalez, CMA. At this point, St. Luke’s had provided 40,000 free office visits for the underserved community.

2018

Dr. Erin Kiesel Joins St. Luke’s

Dr. Erin Kiesel joined the practice, bringing a wealth of patient care experience and greater depth of knowledge in pediatrics and women’s health.

2021

Dr. Forester Retires

In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Forester recognized a perfect opportunity to retire and pass the care of his beloved member patients on to the capable care of Drs. Kiesel and Heck, and keep St. Luke’s on a firm financial footing. Grateful to God for the opportunity, he is humbled that some families had been entrusted to his care for more than 30 years spread over four generations.

Today

Successes

St. Luke’s has provided more than 63,000 free office visits to the underserved of our community. We’ve been a lifeline to those without any other option. St. Luke’s has diagnosed numerous cancers and serious illnesses, saving lives and enrolling patients in more intense and specialized treatment through existing programs. The practice has also helped keep patients’ diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol under control; preventing countless strokes, heart attacks, and hospital admissions; not only improving the health outcome for the individuals, but also saving the taxpayers of Stanislaus County enormous hospital bills.

Additionally, the St. Luke’s model has been applied to numerous other charitable practices across the country.

Today

Growing the Team

We are actively seeking more doctors to join the team at St. Luke’s Family Practice. If you have a servant’s heart, a desire to care for the less advantaged, deep respect for the Catholic healthcare tradition, and a desire to build a practice and commit to our member patients, we’d love to have you on our team. We put our trust in God to continue to provide all that the practice needs so long as He deigns our work necessary.

Prior to being patients at St. Luke’s Family Practice, my family was taking care of our health in a very
discombobulated way that lacked a holistic healthcare management approach. It felt like a cattle drive approach every time we needed care, because that’s how the traditional health care model works. The patient experience at St. Luke’s Family Practice is exactly the opposite. We have direct access to our doctor, everyone in our family is treated like an individual and we feel secure knowing our care is being managed holistically. Because of the personal, accessible relationship we have with our doctor, my family actually looks forward to wellness visits each year.

Dave Darmstandler