PROFESSIONProject Access: Opening the door to health careA North Carolina program began serving the poor in 1995. Now similar ventures are spreading across the nation.By Damon Adams, amednews staff. Jan. 21, 2002.
Community Spirit
An occasional series exploring how physicians take extra steps to ensure the well-being of those in need. Contribute Doctors in Buncombe County in western North Carolina used to fend for themselves when it came to providing free medical care to the needy. That changed in 1995, when doctors teamed up to volunteer their services through the Buncombe County Medical Society's Project Access program. The project is a coordinated network in which physicians give free care to low-income, uninsured residents at doctors' offices and clinics. Since the first patient was seen in 1995, about 8,000 patients have been helped through the program, said Jeremy Russom, Project Access executive administrator who helps communities start similar programs. The project has become a model for other communities across the nation, as 12 groups from Greenville, S.C., to Dallas have launched such systems. Another 50 communities nationwide are starting similar projects. "We believe that everybody has a right to health care, and we have set up a system in our community that allows that to happen," said Suzanne Landis, MD, MPH, a family doctor in Asheville, N.C., who helped start Buncombe's Project Access. "Physicians have always provided charity care. The difference now is that it is organized." In the Buncombe program, specialists, primary care physicians and area hospitals donate care to uninsured patients. Specialists agree to see 20 patients per year; general practitioners handle 10 per year. County government helps fund prescriptions written by the volunteer doctors. A centralized database helps coordinate efforts.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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