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.