Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #2575FY0001 Lakeland Volunteers In Medicine Clinic
Requester:		Representative Paula Dockery			Organization:		Watson Clinic Foundation, Inc.
Project Title:		Lakeland Volunteers In Medicine Clinic			Date Submitted:		2/9/01 9:42:54 AM
Sponsors:		Paula Dockery
Statewide Interest:		Health Care for the Uninsured
Recipient:		Watson Clinic Foundation, Inc.			Contact:		Linda Hart DiMura
		1430 Lakeland Hills Blvd			Contact Phone:		(863) 680-7113
		Lakeland 33805
Counties:		Polk
Service Area:		Private Organization
Project Description:
(Include services to be provided) Funding through the Community Budget Issues Request will 1) Expand the service area of Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic; 2) Provide community education programs on critical issues and 3) Fund Conferences in different locations in Florida to educate communities about how they can develop a Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in their community. We will take this successful local initiative, Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, and provide communities a hands-on workshop and step-by-step instruction for communities that would like to address the problems of providing health care for their uninsured. The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine (LVIM) Clinic is a volunteer run medical clinic that has been developed by the Watson Clinic Foundation, Inc. Volunteers will provide routine non-emergency medical, dental, and counseling services to over 30,000 annually working uninsured who have no medical insurance and no access for routine medical care. We have over 122 physicians, 13 dentists, 102 individual nurses and allied health professionals, 4 nursing schools (University of South Florida, Polk Community College, Traviss Technical School and Florida Southern College) and over 300 lay volunteers that will provide care to our patients. The LVIM Clinic provides primary care and preventive medical, dental, and counseling services. Chronic and acute conditions will be managed through diagnosis, education, medications, and minor procedures. No emergency services, hospitalizations, major procedures, surgeries, or expensive diagnostic or therapeutic services will be provided. Our focus will be on education, prevention, and managing routine medical problems with either inexpensive generic or contributed medications. The LVIM Clinic provides three lines of health services: 1. Primary care outpatient medical: LVIM will provide diagnostic and therapeutic services for most medical conditions that do not require surgery. LVIM Clinic will manage routine cases of Hypertension, Diabetes, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Coronary Artery Disease, Upper Respiratory Infections, Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infections, Sinus Infections, etc. Medications and laboratory serves will be given to patients at no charge. 2. General dental: LVIM Clinic will provide dental education, hygiene, extractions, crowns, plates, fillings and preventive dentistry to the working uninsured. 3. Mental health counseling: LVIM Clinic will provide mental health education and counseling services for Attention Deficit Disorder, Depression, and other routine mental health conditions The LVIM Clinic is a 10,000 sq. ft. facility and includes: 6 adult exam rooms; 1 women's health/OB/GYN room; 2 pediatric exam rooms; 1 minor procedure room; 2 ophthalmologic exam rooms, dental suite with 3 dental exam rooms, x-ray and laboratory; 2 counseling rooms; radiology department; laboratory; pharmacy and central supply; community meeting room; medical records; 3 nurses stations; 4 intake rooms; adult and pediatric waiting rooms. The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic has several objectives: 1. To provide primary medical, dental, and counseling services to the working uninsured of Greater Lakeland. 2. To improve the health of the Greater Lakeland community through education and preventive medicine. 3. To ensure that all children are healthy and ready to learn. 4. To promote volunteerism and community spirit.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
In order to ensure that we are providing the services intended, several outcomes will be measured. Our first objective is to provide medical, dental, and counseling services to the working uninsured of Greater Lakeland. This can be measured by the number of patients seen and the nature of their visits. Patients are accepted based on certain criteria (residency, income level, uninsured). Patients will be required to complete a form denoting personal information, medical history, etc. Each visit, diagnoses and services rendered during the visit of each patient will be documented. Our next objective is to improve the health of Greater Lakeland community through education and preventive medicine. Every year the Department of Health releases a retrospective report of the Health Indicators by County. According to this report, health is measured by birth-related indicators, infant mortality, infectious disease control, cancer, dental health indicators and death from major causes. With the results of this tool as a baseline, it will be possible to track how the LVIM Clinic improves the health of Polk County and the Greater Lakeland area. Also, there are instruments available such as the Oregon Quality of Life Questionnaire that measures the quality of life specifically for the clients of outpatient community health programs. We will assess the quality of life upon the first visit to the Clinic as well as after 90 days and again after 12 months. It will then be possible to determine the relationship between the overall health of the community and the LVIM Clinic's effect on the quality of life of its patients. We believe that as the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic provides routine and preventive care and minor outpatient procedures, the severity of patients that go to the Emergency Department (ED) for medical attention will increase. We know it is possible to track the diagnoses and procedure codes from the ED at the local Hospital. We can create a baseline of severity of medical procedures/diagnoses and then compare them on an annual basis. We want to ensure that all children are healthy and ready to learn. We believe there is a correlation between the health of a child and his attendance and performance in school. Upon the child's first visit, the parent or guardian will be asked to complete a form estimating the number of days absent from school in the past year. The parent or guardian will be asked to keep a record of how many days the child is absent from school due to illness and return the record upon the next visit. As we provide services to the children in the community, we will be able to measure the number of school days the child is missing the relationship to academic performance. This will be assessed on an annual basis. Our final objective is to promote volunteerism and community spirit. This can be measured by the number of volunteers it takes to run the clinic, and the number of hours the volunteers work. Each volunteer will be required to fill out a questionnaire before they begin volunteering and after each year of service. The questionnaire will include which organization they represent, recruitment method, and personal goals. The volunteers will be asked to fill out another questionnaire upon termination of service. From this information, we will be able to track volunteer turnover, effective methods of recruitment and additional public relations needs.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:						$1,000,000
Identify item(s) in the Appropriations Bill to be reduced:
Specific Appropriation #:			534A
Specific Appropriation Title:			Aid to Local Government, Community Health Initiative
Amount to be reduced:			$1,000,000
Fund Source:			General Revenue
Total cost of the project:			$1,657,960
Request has been made to fund:				Operations
Type of funding match:		Private
	Total Cash Amount:		$4,949,738		Total In-Kind Amount:		$800,000
Was this project previously funded by the State?							Yes
	Fiscal Year:		2000		Amount:		$500,000
Is future-year funding likely to be requested?							Yes
	Amount:		$1,000,000
	Purpose for future year funding:					Recurring Operations
	Will this be an annual request?						Yes
Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request?							No
Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget?							No
Is there a documented need for this project?							Yes
	Documentation:		The 2000 Florida Health Insurance Study, Polk Health Dept Study, Lakeland Business Telephone Survey
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?							Yes
	Hearing Body:		Lakeland City Commission Meeting on 01/22/2001 & Polk County Board of County Commissioners 02/06/01
	Meeting Date:		2/6/01