Our Story
Healthcare rooted in community
A volunteer-powered free clinic in Bridgeport, CT.
Sage Healthcare is a free community health clinic in Bridgeport, CT. Walk in. No insurance needed. No questions about status. Just care.
How we got here
Sage Healthcare began inside another mission. The Bridgeport Rescue Mission was sheltering and feeding people in recovery, but true stabilization required medical and behavioral healthcare. They brought that vision to Irene Bihl, DNP, MBA, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, APRN.
Dr. Bihl, a Family and Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, saw a dual opportunity. Vulnerable patients needed exceptional, barrier-free care. Simultaneously, clinical faculty across multiple disciplines required practice hours to maintain their licensure, and healthcare students desperately needed real-world community experience.
She leveraged these overlapping needs to build an engine for community health. By partnering with institutions like Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University, she created a model where licensed professionals and clinical faculty volunteer their expertise, maintaining their practice requirements while precepting the next generation of providers in a complex, diverse community setting.
This wasn’t just about charity; it was systems thinking. The result is Sage Healthcare: a highly innovative, sustainable, multi-disciplinary free care model that deeply embodies the highest calling of the healthcare professions. Today, the clinic is entirely volunteer-powered — fueled entirely by professional volunteers, academic partnerships, and a shared commitment to equity.
839 patient visits in the first full year. Then 2,010. Then 5,365. By early 2025, Sage crossed 1,000 patient visits in a single month. Through February 2025: 14,727+ cumulative patient visits and $1.7M+ in donated healthcare services. Every practitioner a volunteer. Every visit free.
How We Work
A model built on conviction
Free, Expert Care for Patients
A profound commitment to our community’s most vulnerable. We provide comprehensive, high-quality medical and behavioral healthcare with zero cost, zero insurance billing, and zero barriers.
Real-World Training for Students
We partner with local universities to provide nursing and healthcare students with unparalleled clinical rotations. They gain hands-on experience treating complex cases outside the traditional hospital system.
Clinical Practice for Faculty
Our model allows Nurse Practitioner faculty to fulfill their required clinical practice hours while giving back. It transforms an academic requirement into an engine for community health.
Partners in Care
Built on partnerships
Bridgeport Rescue Mission
The partnership that started it all. Sage Healthcare and the Bridgeport Rescue Mission share a facility at the Health Resource Center, 725 Park Avenue. This is not a referral arrangement — it is an integrated operation. BRM provides Sage with critical staff including a full-time Medical Director, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and support team. BRM operates a food pantry three times per week that draws 250 to 450 individuals daily — every one of them can access Sage Healthcare.
Sacred Heart University
Two Family Nurse Practitioner faculty members from Sacred Heart University volunteer weekly at the clinic, providing direct patient care and precepting NP students in a real-world clinical environment. This is not observation — it is practice.
University & Clinical Education Partners
Multiple universities bring undergraduate nursing students to Sage for Community Health clinical rotations. These students provide free preventative health screenings daily — expanding the clinic’s capacity while training providers who have seen what free, community-based care looks like from the inside.
Mission & Values
What we stand for
Free Clinical Care
Expanding access to comprehensive medical and behavioral healthcare for anyone who needs it — with zero financial barriers or gatekeeping.
Professional Education
Training future multidisciplinary healthcare providers by embedding them in the complexities of community health outside the traditional hospital hierarchy.
Academic Partnerships
Providing a structured, high-quality environment where clinical faculty across multiple disciplines can practice and precept students while serving the underserved — creating a sustainable loop of care and education.
Our Core Values
Compassion
Care that meets people where they are — physically, mentally, emotionally.
Equity
Access without conditions. No gatekeeping. No means testing.
Collaboration
Twelve partner institutions and counting. This works because no one tries to own it.
Excellence
Free does not mean lesser. Every patient receives the standard of care they deserve.
Our Journey
Five years. From one room to a campus.
2021
Sage Healthcare founded as Collaboration Healthcare Corp. Steering committee formed with university and clinical partners.
2022–2024
Rapid expansion. Patient volume grows over 500% as community trust builds and university partnerships expand our clinical capacity.
June 2024
Robby’s House purchased at 385 Barnum Avenue — funded by a single private gift to create permanent supportive housing.
Early 2025
Clinic surpasses 1,000 monthly patient visits. With over 14,000 cumulative visits logged, the need for free care in Bridgeport remains urgent.
Spring 2026
Robby’s House opens — providing a permanent home and continuous mental health stabilization for adults living with serious mental illness.
What We Provide
Comprehensive care. Always free.
Sage Healthcare provides a full spectrum of services — not a narrow slice.
- Comprehensive preventative and primary care
- Behavioral and mental health services
- Substance use counseling
- Medication management
- Exercise classes with physical therapy
- Smoking cessation programs
- Parenting groups
- Holistic care addressing mind, body, and spirit
- Referral to spiritual advisors if desired
This is not urgent care. This is a medical home — for people who have never had one.
This is care as it should be.
Walk in. Call. Volunteer. Donate. There’s a place for everyone at Sage.