Monday, November 17, 2008
Now that Thanksgiving is around the corner I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have posted to my Blog and have given such great "food for thought" regarding alternative forms to provide health care for all in this great country. I hope all of you have a Blessed Thanksgiving. During this season of being blessed if you run across a patient who may benefit from some help, feel free to refer them to any of the low cost clinics posted one this site. Be blessed, and many thanks! Kathi.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
What a week readers! A new President-Elect, who promises change. Dallas passed a bill to renovate Parkland Hospital to better serve the community, it is a time for us health care workers to have hope that we can provide better care for all. But as health care provider's we also know that change takes time and is often difficult. In Present-Elect Obama's address Tuesday night he spoke to the crowds that change may take time, "it may take this administration to implement the programs..." As we saw with prior administrations Health Care reform may or may not happen. I wish this and any administration the best when trying to tackle this issue. The health of our citizens is paramount to the health of our nation. With that said, I hope we as nurses, and health care provider's will continue to support organizations that offer low cost health services, and those who look at innovative ways to promote health. Last week I discussed Minute Clinics, this week I would like to spend a minute discussing the charity work of hospital based systems. Last week Presbyterian Dallas and Plano published an article in the Dallas Morning News about Presbycare a charitable system that helps covers the costs of indigent patients who cannot cover their hospital charges. During my internship at Baylor University Medical Center Dallas (ED) I have learned about the Worth Street Clinic. A low cost clinic that offers medical care and medications for the uninsured. They also have walk-in hours Monday-Fridays in which patients can be seen for acute illness and medication refills all at a very low cost for service. So as our new government tackles health care reform, I ask you to support organizations such as faith-based clinics, low-cost clinics, hospitals providing charitable services, and innovators such as CVS. They are all working hard to deliver quality care, with easy access to all, at little or low cost. So all Americans can afford health care. Together I believe we can make a difference.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Tomorrow the country will be voting for a new President, and many new Senate and Congress Seats. Also in Dallas the citizens will be voting to build or not build a new Parkland Hospital. The outcomes all these elections will effect millions of lives and healthcare policy both here in Dallas and of course nationally. However I worry what are we going to do to care for those underserved and needy individual's until "Change" occurs, or expanded services at Parkland become a reality? The literature regarding Parklands expansion states that the first PHASE of expansion will not be done until 2012, and if history has proven true it takes at least 2 years for a President to see his social programs become active.
I have been talking about the importance about Faith-Based and Free Clinics and as volunteers keeping these organizations alive with our professional talents for the past months. However ther are other options I would like to introduce that is being powered by Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistant's that give the consumer low-cost options for primary care. The CVS corporation has created Minute Clinics within their stores. These clinics treat low acuity illness, and promote primary care at affordable costs. The Mid-level providers follow National Guidelines, and are supervised by Physicians to ensure quality, safe primary care. I was impressed looking at their "price menu" common ilnesses such as otitis media can be treated for $59.00. I was also thrilled to see that diagnostic testing for chronic illness screening was also offered one can be screened for hyperlipemia counselled, and referred to a low-cost clinic for management. Readers if you have a moment please check out the Minute clinic link, they are doing inoovative work! http://minuteclinic.com/en/USA/Treatment-and-Cost.aspx.
I do hope you all consider volunteering, with the current economic enviroment her in Dallas and the Nation, there will be increased need for medical care and services. Thanks for reading, and be sure to vote tomorrow!
I have been talking about the importance about Faith-Based and Free Clinics and as volunteers keeping these organizations alive with our professional talents for the past months. However ther are other options I would like to introduce that is being powered by Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistant's that give the consumer low-cost options for primary care. The CVS corporation has created Minute Clinics within their stores. These clinics treat low acuity illness, and promote primary care at affordable costs. The Mid-level providers follow National Guidelines, and are supervised by Physicians to ensure quality, safe primary care. I was impressed looking at their "price menu" common ilnesses such as otitis media can be treated for $59.00. I was also thrilled to see that diagnostic testing for chronic illness screening was also offered one can be screened for hyperlipemia counselled, and referred to a low-cost clinic for management. Readers if you have a moment please check out the Minute clinic link, they are doing inoovative work! http://minuteclinic.com/en/USA/Treatment-and-Cost.aspx.
I do hope you all consider volunteering, with the current economic enviroment her in Dallas and the Nation, there will be increased need for medical care and services. Thanks for reading, and be sure to vote tomorrow!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tonight the Collin County Adult Clinic" http://www.collincountyadultclinic.org/about%20us.htm will treat and give medications to approximately 80 indigent to low-income patients. For the past few months our numbers have been growing, and with the current economy we expect to see an increase in the use of our services. However, tonight our Doctors, Nurse Practitioner's, PA's, Nurses, and ancillary staff will work diligantly to treat chronic and acute illness, prevent illness by administering free influenza vaccines, and dispensping free medications for those who state they cannot afford $4.00 prescriptions. I reflect on this as I read an article in todays Dallas Morning News dallasnews.com, Thursday October 21, 2008, titled "Skimping on meds in a bad economy". The article discusses why some patients forgo preventative health examinations, and must chose one medication over another. They state an alarming statistic from the Kaiser Family Foundation that 36% of families recently polled said that they or a family member have put off needed care, and increase from 29% just this April 2008! They predict this number will increase over the next year. I worry as this political season draws to a close that people will "wait" for a fix when it comes to healthcare reform. Regardless who wins, Obama or McCain it will take years for their programs to become implemented. In the meantime, I ask to support the volunteers at Faith-Based or Free Clinics. These selfless volunteers really do make a difference. Providers if you know of patients who are having to "do with-out" a medication or treatment, please down-load the attached links to the free clinics I have listed. These organizations will do their best to make sure that your patients don't have to chose between one pill or the other because of cost. We do our best to find a way to provide what is needed.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
I am waiting for the Presidential candidates to start their third debate, and I wonder if they will discuss their concrete plans regarding how to provide health care for the uninsured in the United States. How can you charge a family with an income $5000.00 for a health care package. On the other hand do we really want socialized medicine in our country. Canadians and people from other nations with socialized medicine frequently come to the US for the best medical care in the world, without waits. Do we want that? Do we want our choices taken away? What to do? More importantly we have a nation of uninsured citizens. Texas as a state being the almost the worst, being ranked 49th nationally in providing health care to her citizens.
We as citizens can work together to help solve this problem, that is the beauty of faith-based clinics. People helping people to solve a huge problem. The next governmental bail-out according to many who speculate on these fiscal matters will be Medicare. Some say it will be bankrupt in the next ten years. We need cost effective solutions! Wouldn't it be great if people at the community level were already working together to provide health care at a very low-cost price, getting the ball rolling, with-out federal or state intervention, unless we asked for the grant.....
I ran across an article in the Dallas Morning New 10/07/08 dallasnews.com that discusses a partnership between faith based clinics that receive federal aid. One such clinic, Central Dallas Ministries provides services to chronically homeless people such as rehab from substance abuse, financial guidance, and life skills training to help get them back on their feet. Their success is so significant they have helped reduce Dallas' chronic homeless rate by 43% in two years time.
The responses I have received from my survey so far have indicated that many of you would volunteer to work at a free or faith-based clinic not for tax benefits, but to simply help your community. That is so awesome! I believe in the goodness of humanity, I don't think we need an overall government bail-out in health care, but creative interventions, such as volunteer driven clinics; perhaps ones like Central Dallas Ministries, that does so much with so little. Together we can make a difference. Wouldn't it be cool if the candidates a plan that involved citizens working together to make America better. That candidate would get my vote! A million points of light wouldn't be political rhetoric, but realty.
We as citizens can work together to help solve this problem, that is the beauty of faith-based clinics. People helping people to solve a huge problem. The next governmental bail-out according to many who speculate on these fiscal matters will be Medicare. Some say it will be bankrupt in the next ten years. We need cost effective solutions! Wouldn't it be great if people at the community level were already working together to provide health care at a very low-cost price, getting the ball rolling, with-out federal or state intervention, unless we asked for the grant.....
I ran across an article in the Dallas Morning New 10/07/08 dallasnews.com that discusses a partnership between faith based clinics that receive federal aid. One such clinic, Central Dallas Ministries provides services to chronically homeless people such as rehab from substance abuse, financial guidance, and life skills training to help get them back on their feet. Their success is so significant they have helped reduce Dallas' chronic homeless rate by 43% in two years time.
The responses I have received from my survey so far have indicated that many of you would volunteer to work at a free or faith-based clinic not for tax benefits, but to simply help your community. That is so awesome! I believe in the goodness of humanity, I don't think we need an overall government bail-out in health care, but creative interventions, such as volunteer driven clinics; perhaps ones like Central Dallas Ministries, that does so much with so little. Together we can make a difference. Wouldn't it be cool if the candidates a plan that involved citizens working together to make America better. That candidate would get my vote! A million points of light wouldn't be political rhetoric, but realty.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Volunteers Help Prevent ER Overcrowding: A Faith-Based Alternative
Emergency personnel nation wide collectively shuddered on July 11, 2007 when President Bush stated in a speech, “The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” As a 17-year veteran Emergency Room (ER) Registered Nurse those words sent a shiver down my spine. ER’s nationally have suffered tremendously because of overcrowding. The fact is, with more and more people relying on hospitals for primary care the outcome is decreased staff productivity, ambulance diversion, and most importantly putting patients at risk for poor medical outcomes.
Access to patient care is not getting easier. Just this week Baylor University Medical Center (Dallas TX) adopted a system to triage non-urgent patients to local low-cost clinics, or give them the option to be seen, but they must pay prior to receiving medical services. Baylor’s goal is to decrease its ER’s overcrowding, and attempt to educate the public on the appropriate utilization of Emergency Services. However, is that concept feasible?
Frankly many people who frequent ER’s for chronic or non-urgent matters do not have the resources to establish a relationship with a clinic. Many low-cost clinics still charge, an average of, $40.00 the low cost of a minute-clinics® sick visit (otitis media ) by a Nurse Practitioner, to 90.00 at Planned Parenthood for sexually transmitted disease evaluation or pregnancy confirmation. These both examples of the types of visits that many uninsured people determine are emergent and go to the ER’s to have these needs met. Now that Baylor for example will be screening out low acuity and chronic illness where can we refer these patients who may not have $40.00 to have their aching ear evaluated…? The answer is faith-based clinics.
Dallas County Medical Society supports many clinics in Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin counties that provide medical services to indigent and low-income residents of the Metroplex. Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistant’s, Nurses, Social Workers, Translators, ancillary, and support professionals donate their time to provide very low cost or free services to this population, with the goal of health promotion, and as a way of preventing ER overcrowding.
I volunteer at a faith-based clinic in Plano called The Collin County Adult Clinic. Every Thursday night, and one Tuesday a month, healthcare and ancillary professionals work side-by-side, managing patients diabetes, hypertension, and caring for acute complaints. We average 80 patients per night. We expect this number to grow with the current shift in the economy. For a $10.00 donation our patients receive lab work donated by Labcorp ®, medical examinations, and although we encourage our patients to utilize the $4.00 plans available at Kroger, Target and Wal-Mart stores, we have a full pharmacy and many patients rely on us to provide their medications and diabetic testing supplies for free.
Although faith-based clinics will not fix the health care crisis, they are a bipartisan solution of people helping people stay well. These organizations do not receive federal, state, or local funding, but our outcome of giving people a clinic “home” and keeping them well at a very low-cost is phenomenal! Governor Perry recognizes the importance of medical professionals volunteering their time. In 2005 he signed Rep. Dan Branch’s (not my relative) HB 2680 bill to eliminate the threat of nuisance lawsuits and empowers providers to volunteer at charity clinics. In this bill Gov. Perry recognizes the efforts of medical professionals who staff these clinics, and encourages them to volunteer at faith-based and free clinic that serve the needy.
If Gov. Perry is willing to work on eliminating nuisance lawsuits for those who volunteer in order to care for the underserved, the next logical step would be to rally for tax credits to encourage as many healthcare professionals, and ancillary personnel to staff these clinics as possible. The act of staffing these clinics with as many professionals as possible, I believe would significantly ease ED overcrowding.
Please respond:
Would you volunteer as at a faith-based or free clinic to care for the uninsured if you could receive a tax credit for your volunteer hours?
I intend to forward this information to my senators, would you please specify what city, state, and Zip code with your answer. Thank you.
Access to patient care is not getting easier. Just this week Baylor University Medical Center (Dallas TX) adopted a system to triage non-urgent patients to local low-cost clinics, or give them the option to be seen, but they must pay prior to receiving medical services. Baylor’s goal is to decrease its ER’s overcrowding, and attempt to educate the public on the appropriate utilization of Emergency Services. However, is that concept feasible?
Frankly many people who frequent ER’s for chronic or non-urgent matters do not have the resources to establish a relationship with a clinic. Many low-cost clinics still charge, an average of, $40.00 the low cost of a minute-clinics® sick visit (otitis media ) by a Nurse Practitioner, to 90.00 at Planned Parenthood for sexually transmitted disease evaluation or pregnancy confirmation. These both examples of the types of visits that many uninsured people determine are emergent and go to the ER’s to have these needs met. Now that Baylor for example will be screening out low acuity and chronic illness where can we refer these patients who may not have $40.00 to have their aching ear evaluated…? The answer is faith-based clinics.
Dallas County Medical Society supports many clinics in Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin counties that provide medical services to indigent and low-income residents of the Metroplex. Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistant’s, Nurses, Social Workers, Translators, ancillary, and support professionals donate their time to provide very low cost or free services to this population, with the goal of health promotion, and as a way of preventing ER overcrowding.
I volunteer at a faith-based clinic in Plano called The Collin County Adult Clinic. Every Thursday night, and one Tuesday a month, healthcare and ancillary professionals work side-by-side, managing patients diabetes, hypertension, and caring for acute complaints. We average 80 patients per night. We expect this number to grow with the current shift in the economy. For a $10.00 donation our patients receive lab work donated by Labcorp ®, medical examinations, and although we encourage our patients to utilize the $4.00 plans available at Kroger, Target and Wal-Mart stores, we have a full pharmacy and many patients rely on us to provide their medications and diabetic testing supplies for free.
Although faith-based clinics will not fix the health care crisis, they are a bipartisan solution of people helping people stay well. These organizations do not receive federal, state, or local funding, but our outcome of giving people a clinic “home” and keeping them well at a very low-cost is phenomenal! Governor Perry recognizes the importance of medical professionals volunteering their time. In 2005 he signed Rep. Dan Branch’s (not my relative) HB 2680 bill to eliminate the threat of nuisance lawsuits and empowers providers to volunteer at charity clinics. In this bill Gov. Perry recognizes the efforts of medical professionals who staff these clinics, and encourages them to volunteer at faith-based and free clinic that serve the needy.
If Gov. Perry is willing to work on eliminating nuisance lawsuits for those who volunteer in order to care for the underserved, the next logical step would be to rally for tax credits to encourage as many healthcare professionals, and ancillary personnel to staff these clinics as possible. The act of staffing these clinics with as many professionals as possible, I believe would significantly ease ED overcrowding.
Please respond:
Would you volunteer as at a faith-based or free clinic to care for the uninsured if you could receive a tax credit for your volunteer hours?
I intend to forward this information to my senators, would you please specify what city, state, and Zip code with your answer. Thank you.
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