Medical mission’s move increases care opportunities
An offhand, half-joking remark roughly a year ago set the wheels in motion to move into a new home for the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission at 1857 Pine St.
The agency, which serves low-to-moderate income residents who don’t qualify for Medicaid and lacks health insurance, made the move in June from its former location at 302 Medical Drive.
Scott Golding, chief executive of the medical care mission, recalled a meeting with Hendrick Medical Center officials at which someone posed a question:
“What can we do to keep primary care patients from showing up at the emergency room?”
Golding said he quipped that moving the medical care mission across Pine Street from Hendrick, into a then-vacant spacious building owned by the hospital, would do the trick. The mission’s stock-in-trade is primary medical care.
“It was literally just a tongue-in-cheek thing that I threw out there,” Golding said.
Then Hendrick officials decided it made a lot of sense, and negotiations started, he said.
The upshot is that the mission was granted a five-year lease for no rental fee.
“The new location of the mission will benefit our entire community,” said Susie Cassle, Hendrick’s director of Trauma Services.
Primary care is much less costly than emergency room care, so the hospital saves by reducing the number of people who show up with non-emergency ailments that can be treated at much less cost across the street, Golding explained.
Patients with true emergencies also gain by getting quicker treatment in the ER or trauma center, he said.
Patients who lack health insurance often show up at the ER for primary treatment because they don’t have personal physicians, and ERs are required to provide treatment. People who lack health insurance but don’t qualify for government benefits such as Medicaid make up much of the medical care mission’s patient load.
The move to Pine Street provides the staff with much greater elbow room. The mission gained 12 more patient examination rooms — a total of 18, compared to six at the Medical Drive location, Golding said.
The mission was closed for two weeks in late June to move records, equipment and supplies to the new location.
The medical staff started seeing patients on a limited basis on June 29 and resumed full operation on July 6.
The new location quickly boosted the number of people seeking appointments, Golding said. Within 10 minutes of the first Monday in its new digs, the next week’s appointment log was filled, he said.
Personnel at the Hendrick trauma center suggest the medical mission to patients who show up with primary care conditions, but they may choose treatment at the trauma center, he said.
Its new location has enabled the medical care mission to “move 10 years ahead in our growth plans,”
Golding said.
Golding also said that with the move, the clinic is looking to add a physician or another medical profession.
One facet of the medical mission’s plans will be to construct its own new building at the Medical Drive location but to maintain a satellite location next to Hendrick to treat patients who show up at the trauma center with primary care needs, he said.
Another will be to expend its hours of operation — currently 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday — to include evening and perhaps weekend service. Still another would open rural clinics out in the 22-county service area of the mission. Currently patients who live in the outlying counties must commute to Abilene for services.
The mission provides primary medical care and prescription services at its new location, while its dental clinic remains located at 294 Medical Drive.
Golding said collaboration with other institutions, as in the case of Hendrick, enables the mission to provide high-quality care at low cost. Working with the Alliance for Women and Children, the mission provides timely breast exams to women. Blue Cross-Blue Shield helps the clinic with pharmaceuticals, and a number of organizations, including foundations, churches and other not-for-profits, plus Taylor County, help with funding.
The county is required by state law to appropriate 8 percent of its gross property tax levy for indigent health care and funnels part of this funding to the medical care mission. It also uses funds from the county’s share of a state tobacco lawsuit settlement about 10 years ago to help pay for pharmaceuticals and dental work.
In all, the county set aside $280,000 this fiscal year from the indigent health care fund, jail budget and tobacco settlement to pay for medical, pharmaceutical and dental services to patients of the medical care mission, including jail inmates, said County Auditor Bridget McDowell. County Commissioners expect to add 3 percent for the new fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
“It’s a win-win situation for both” the county and the clinic, said County Judge George Newman.
“If we had to go … through a hospital, the cost would be enormous,” said Newman, who estimated savings to the county of at least 50 percent.
“It’s hard to estimate the cost savings to Taylor County,” said Commissioner Stan Egger. Direct expenditure savings are only part of the story, he said.
In the mid-’90s, a study commissioned by the United Way of Abilene found that dental care for a segment of the population was a critical unmet need, Egger said. This led to the medical care mission’s establishing a dental clinic.
Goldman lavished praise on the mission’s staff of 17, volunteer physicians including retirees who see patients one day a week, and non-medical volunteers who keep the business and clerical side of the business humming. Without all the volunteer help, costs of providing care would be much higher, he said.
Although medical care is its main focus, the mission serves other needs of its patients. Amy Wilson, who holds a master of divinity degree, is a full-time director of spiritual wellness. Program director Dave Kraly, with his many community contacts with businesses and non-profits, sometimes can point a patient who needs a job to a prospective employer, Golding said.
The medical care mission pegs the cost of providing a typical office visit at $41.75, $10 from the patient, $14.19 from a grant, and $17.56 from all other sources. The mission’s figures show that the medical clinic serves more than 11,000 patients a year, and the dental clinic about 3,000.
Goldman voiced little concern about how national health care reform might affect his clinic. A central stated goal of reform efforts is to provide health care coverage for more than 45 million uninsured Americans.
“This patient population is not going away,” Golding said.
