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Health Care Tour: “Seeking Patient-Centered Care”
Greenville Free Medical Clinic
The Issue:
- Greenville Free Medical Clinic (GFMC) serves low-income residents of Greenville County (up to 200% of the poverty level) who have no Medicaid, Medicare or private health insurance coverage. The clinic provides quality health care at no cost to its patients.
Findings:
- GFMC provides “real doctors at a real doctor’s office.GFMC provides “real doctors at a real doctor’s office.”
- GFMC sees 3,000 patients and fills nearly 40,000 prescriptions each year. The total costs to the clinic average $250 per patient per year across its downtown and satellite locations. Dental and ophthalmology care are also available.
- Physicians and dentists are asked to serve once per quarter. The clinic staff prescreens patients for eligibility before they schedule appointments with the volunteer physicians and dentists. Nursing and clinic staff (4 full-time, 8 part-time) provide continuity.
- Begun in 1987 as a relief for ER congestion, the clinic now focuses mostly on chronic disease care (hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol, arthritis, etc.).
- Popular Misconceptions
- “Medicaid covers all the poor people.”
- Many individuals fall through the cracks, making too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to cover their health care.
- “Free clinics are there for homeless, ex-cons, and drug addicts.”
- The majority of patients are people with working members in the household and averaging $1,000/month household income.
- “The clinic must be subsidized with federal funds.”
- GFMC receives no federal dollars for its $770,000 budget. One third of funds come from the United Way with churches, fundraisers and community donors providing the rest.
- GFMC is totally free to patients – with no co-pays, for labs, procedures or pharmaceuticals.
- Some patients of lower income cannot afford the extra costs associated with Federally Qualified Health Clinics.
o Nine out of ten patients say that if they did not receive free medications from the clinic, they would not be able to afford to stay on their medications.
- The average chronic disease patient takes 6 medications and pharmaceuticals are the biggest growing part of GFMC’s budget.
- Commun-I-Care, non-profit prescription medication organization, provides prescription medications donated by 11 different companies for a variety of illnesses and conditions.
- Non-compliant patients are always a challenge, but GFMC leverages its advantages.
- Once patients realize they can get continuity of care at the clinic, they are willing to be educated, and education leads to practice.
- Free medications and procedures improve compliance since cost is not a factor. Otherwise patients don’t follow through in an attempt to cut costs.
- Patients often come for one symptom and then other health issues are treated while there. Having all services under one roof improves compliance since patients don’t have to make multiple appointments and visits. Even specialists come to the clinic for procedures such as EKGs.
- Nurses at the clinic focus on providing health education, not just treatments.
When: March 18, 2008
Where: 600 Arlington Avenue, Greenville, SC 29601
Hosts: Suzie Foley (Director), Phil Feisal (Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital – GFMC Board of Directors), David Slade (Rosenfeld Einstein – GFMC Board of Directors), Palmira “Pam” Snape, M.D. (retired Family Practice and Volunteer Clinical Director), Bill Kellett, M.D. (retired OB/Gyn)