A Heartfelt Thank You

Mrs. Erika Pratt, the Executive Director of Samaritan Health Ministries (SHM) for eight and a half years, has stepped down from her position to move to Houston for family reasons.

Through Erika’s efforts and those of our volunteers and staff, SHM has expanded its times and days of service dramatically, while enhancing the types of care that we offer to our clients. SHM has always been volunteer based, but with Erika’s help, we have also become a staff-supplemented model of care that ensures the continuity of services so vital to the health of our patients. This model has served SHM especially well during the current pandemic. Many of our volunteers are in a high-risk category. Thus, the reason that SHM has been able to remain open to serve patients is that we have staff who are able to provide care.

Erika has helped to recruit a variety of providers to the SHM care family and this has resulted in outstanding health outcomes for our patients. Erika’s devotion helped SHM become a clinic that now provides medical, dental, mental health, counseling, women’s health, pharmacy, vision testing and infectious disease services. Her efforts moved SHM from a very part-time, acute care facility to one open full-time plus evenings and serving as a home for medical care for more than 1400 patients in the Greater Williamson County area with approximately 7400 visits and more than 11,000 prescriptions filled in 2019.

By significantly expanding the SHM funding base, Erika has enabled SHM to serve more families and provide more patient visits each week than many in the local community would have thought possible. By being a veritable outreach engine, Erika has helped SHM develop a large community of SHM ambassadors to let potential patients, volunteers and donors know about this wonderful ministry.

On behalf of the SHM board and for myself, I thank Erika with all my heart for her outstanding service to SHM and to the community. As we all carry on together, we know that Erika’s example will help us continue to grow this ministry into what our Lord has envisioned.

Dr. Rich Wilcox, SHM Board Chair