costeffective care

Cost-Effective Care

     Our clinicians offer the highest level of care to their patients. One indicator of this is the low-birthweight rate of babies born to Clinica patients. If a baby is underweight when born, she is more likely to have expensive, long-term health problems and difficulties in school. Having delivered 1,718 babies to our patients last year, our low-birthweight rate (babies weighing less than 2,500 grams) is 6.73% for the year. By comparison, the state low-birthweight rate was 9.0% in 2004 (most current data available from the state Department of Public Health and Environment).

     Clinica also provides minor-emergency urgent care to its patients. In communities where sliding-fee, primary care clinics are unavailable, uninsured and low-income residents frequently rely on hospital emergency rooms for acute care needs. If our patients utilize emergency rooms for problems such as strep throat, ear infections and upper respiratory infections, the cost can be three to ten times as much as the same service provided at Clinica once tests and medication charges are included.To make our patients less reliant on emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, Clinica has changed its scheduling policies so that 75% of a day's appointments are available that same day. This allows b people with urgent needs to be seen the day that they call the clinic, decreasing their inclination to seek help at an emergency room. About 25% of all our appointments are currently used by patients needing urgent care.

     In addition, Clinica provides patients with comprehensive preventive care such as cancer screenings, well child services, immunizations and health education - all of which reduce health care costs in the long run. By diagnosing problems early, we can provide people with care before a health issue turns into a crisis and when it is less expensive to treat. In addition to our clinicians, Clinica employs licensed social workers, registered dieticians and case managers who form a Health Education and Preventive Services team. These individuals work with our patients to reduce health risks and connect them with community resources so that health, financial and psychosocial problems can be addressed or even prevented. Our health educators are well connected with other community agencies so that we can efficiently help patients without replicating services available elsewhere. Providing preventive services to low-income, uninsured patients not only saves Clinica money, it also helps lower costs to the state medical system by reducing the number of hospital stays, shortening hospital stays, reducing the number of surgical procedures needed by our patients and lowering the number of bills that hospitals write off as uncollectible.