The surviving-charity-clinic test, run for this ground: negative

TESTED NOVEMBER 2026 · SEARCHES SHOWN

The pattern to test is the Sister Maura Brannick pattern: a charity clinic founded by a hospital for the uninsured poor that outlives its hospital's presence — in the county's own record, the clinic Sister Maura Brannick, CSC, a Holy Cross sister and nurse, persuaded St. Joseph Regional Medical Center to sponsor in October 1986, in a 400-square-foot garage on West Washington Street in South Bend; moved to Chapin Street in February 1988; rebuilt at 10,000 square feet and dedicated in December 1998; renamed for its founder on October 13, 2006; and still serving patients at or below 150 percent of the poverty line who qualify for neither Medicare nor Medicaid nor private insurance, after the sponsoring hospital itself left downtown South Bend for its Mishawaka seat in 2009. The clinic stayed; the hospital moved. The test for this ground ran three searches. First, the exempt and provider registers for a charity or free clinic seated inside the designated place: none — the in-line seats are the two systems' ordinary practices Health & Care prints. Second, the South Bend Clinic's Granger Campus tested against the class: it is a surviving clinic, but of a living house, on commercial terms — not a departed hospital's charity clinic, and it does not meet the pattern. Third, Beacon's charity-care record tested: Beacon prints a system financial-assistance policy, charity care as a policy of the whole system — not a surviving named clinic of a departed house on or for this ground. The result is a searched negative, printed as such: no surviving charity clinic of a departed hospital serves this ground as a seat; the county's one example of the pattern stands on Chapin Street in South Bend, at boundary distance, and Granger patients who meet its tests are served there as county residents, not as Granger's own clinic.

Sources: Today's Catholic and the Catholic Health Association, the Sister Maura Brannick record (the October 1986 sponsorship and garage opening; the February 1988 Chapin Street move; the December 1998 dedication; the October 13, 2006 renaming; the 150-percent eligibility rule; Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center's sponsorship). The South Bend Clinic's Granger Campus roster and Beacon Health System's financial-assistance record, as printed November 2026.