Community Clinic
(Coming in 2021)
"The right to health for all people means that everyone should have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without suffering financial hardship"
Safety-net clinics, which provide free services provided by volunteer healthcare professionals to uninsured patients, offer a number of benefits to health systems
1. Improved patient care. Safety-net clinics ensure patients who may not have otherwise had access to high-quality primary receive the care they need to stay healthy or manage their conditions. Hospitals that support these clinics, either through funding or volunteer relationships, help ensure quality care for all patients.
2. Alleviates pressure on emergency departments. Safety-net clinics also reduce uninsured patient visits to an ED for both emergent and non-emergent conditions. Better primary care reduces the chance that a patient will need to visit the ED, and for an uninsured patient that does present for a non-emergent condition, the patient could be referred to the clinic for treatment instead.
3. Helps reduce avoidable readmissions.
Often, uninsured patients have difficulty finding a physician to treat them outside of the hospital. A free clinic can provide follow-up care to patients after discharge, thereby reducing the likelihood of a readmission.
