Murdock Trust donates $179,000 to Free Clinic

Specialty medical services can be extremely expensive — and priced out of reach for people with no health insurance.

That’s why the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded $179,000 to the Free Clinic of Southwest Washington to help connect needy people with local hospitals and specialty physicians.

Project Access Clark County began as a pilot program at the Free Clinic in March 2008. It’s based on a model that’s been implemented in dozens of communities across the nation; Clark County was the fifth county in Washington to try it.

Now, the Murdock grant will allow the Free Clinic to hire more staff dedicated to linking people who need specialty care with doctors and hospitals that have agreed to donate services.

“The money will go toward bringing our part-time program manager up to full-time status,” said clinic development director Shirley Gross.

“We have one patient care coordinator and we’ll be able to hire another one. As our patient caseload increases we’ll need more caseworkers to manage that.”

The grant also will pay for a new computer and software as well as ancillary services including lab work and language translation.

Any physician, whether at a free clinic or in private practice, can refer a patient to Project Access Clark County (PACC). The patient will get a call from a PACC care coordinator for eligibility screening and enrollment. After that, the coordinator handles all specialty referrals and access to pharmacy and lab services.

Patients are never billed, but services are tracked to quantify their value.

“These are not emergency situations but medical issues that have to be scheduled,” said Gross. “A perfect example is a construction worker who has a hernia and needs an operation. He can’t get work, he can’t afford the surgery, he can’t do much until he gets that fixed.”

PACC can also connect people with the government support they need when they’ve been diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses, she said.

“That’s extremely expensive,” she said. “We’ll get them started in the process.”

The Free Clinic aims to connect 258 patients with PACC services by the end of 2008 and 1,000 by the end of 2009. Ultimately, PACC aims to significantly reduce needless emergency department and hospital visits.

To learn more, visit www.projectaccessnow.org/clark.htm

The $179,000 grant is spread across three years; the clinic will have to find matching funds in years two and three, Gross said.

The Free Clinic, housed at the Jim Parsley Community Center, served more than 15,000 people last year. More than 550 medical, dental and other volunteers donate their time. Services include basic and urgent health care, dental care, screenings, immunizations, medications and emergency prescription assistance, head lice treatments, school sports physicals and vision care.

The Murdock Charitable Trust, based in Vancouver, was created in 1975. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest. It gave away $35 million in 2007.

Scott Hewitt: 360-735-4529 ors scott hewitt@columbian.com.