title: What do you do with a vision?
abstract: The closure of healthcare facilities that have traditionally supported a mission to serve the poor makes it almost impossible to find affordable healthcare in our inner cities and in low-income regions of the United States. State welfare rolls continue to decline because of our strong economy that makes it possible for almost everyone to find employment. Unfortunately, an increasing percentage of this employment is in minimum and low-paying jobs, where healthcare benefits are not offered or are unaffordable. A vision of meeting the needs of a growing population without health insurance led to the development of a clinic staffed with volunteer and paid healthcare providers to serve our community. The development of a nonprofit clinic would provide nominally priced healthcare services to the uninsured population of southwest Detroit by using a multidisciplinary team of healthcare providers and business-oriented support persons to provide primary healthcare, dental care, patient education, and pharmacy and counseling services.
authors.affiliation: William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA. jbcoslow@ameritech.net
authors.forename: Barbara I Franzen
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Coslow
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006040:Goals; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008824:Michigan; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods; D014838:Volunteers