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EDITORIAL: Good Samaritian Clinic is a model for healthcare reform
Nov 16, 2009 (The Mountaineer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
As the nation struggles with healthcare reform measures, there are certainly lessons to be learned from the Good Samaritan Clinic and Mountaintop Healthcare in Haywood County.
This unique free clinic model has crafted a way to provide integrative healthcare for low-income adults without health insurance.
Unlike most free clinics, Good Samaritan provides not only acute care, but ongoing patient care and help for chronic conditions. The clinic also serves Medicaid patients, which was possible by setting up a new nonprofit organization called Mountaintop Healthcare. This allows those who who are newly qualified for Medicaid to find healthcare within the county since there are no local physicians currently taking new Medicaid patients.
Once a patient at Good Samaritan, individuals can receive free counseling, help in finding reduced-price medications, be able to see a medical practitioner and can be referred to a specialist, if necessary. A $10 donation is asked of all clients.
The clinic's services help provide a buffer for those who might otherwise fall through the cracks in a medical system reimbursed by private insurance/payments and government payments. The clinic also reduces the overall healthcare costs within the community as those without insurance or a regular medical provider often end up at the medical system's most expensive health care delivery point -- a hospital emergency department.
Good Samaritan can offer cost-effective medical care because of the generosity of volunteers and several efficiencies in place. Donda Bennett, the clinic's executive director, explains the clinic has embraced the use of electronic records, and has only minimal staffing. For instance, the person working the front desk also checks patients in and performs routine tasks such as taking vital signs and asking for a reason for the visit. Having a paperless office where all records are kept in a computer database also provides a huge savings by reducing the number of staff or volunteers. When it comes to providing preventive care, there is no telling the amount of savings, both in the terms of lives and cost, that are being realized.
The key word in modern healthcare is "integrative," which means medicine not only cares for immediate medical needs, but ones likely to surface in the future without medication or changed behavior, as well as the patient's mental condition.
The ability to establish a relationship with patients and track their care is not only unique to the Good Samaritan model, but is helping deal proactively with healthcare needs in Haywood County. It is a model many at the forefront of the healthcare debate have touted.
Its success locally should serve as a beacon of light showing the correct path to reform.
To see more of The Mountaineer or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.themountaineer.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Mountaineer,
Waynesville, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For
reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or
847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group
Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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