Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #835 Lakeland Volunteers In Medicine
Requester:	John Cannon		Organization:		Watson Clinic Foundation
Project Title:	Lakeland Volunteers In Medicine		Date Submitted:		01/25/2000 4:29:40 PM
District Member:	John Laurent		Service Area:		City/Town
Counties Affected:	Polk
Recipient:	Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine		Contact:		Linda Hart DiMura
	1430 Lakeland Hills Blvd		Contact Phone:		(863) 680-7113
	Lakeland 33805
Project Description:
The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine (LVIM) Clinic is a volunteer run medical clinic that is being developed by the Watson Clinic Foundation in cooperation with Polk County Medical Association, Polk County Dental Association, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, the City of Lakeland, Polk County School Board, and many local civic organizations. Volunteers will provide routine non-emergency medical, dental, and counseling services to over 20,000 of our working uninsured who have no medical insurance and no place to go for routine medical care. Over 100 physicians, 150 nurses and 300 non-medical volunteers will provide the care for our patients at the LVIM Clinic. Our vision is based on a similar clinic in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The Hilton Head Volunteers in Medicine Clinic opened in 1994. It serves more than 16,000 patients each year through the efforts of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses, and non-medical volunteers. The founder of the Hilton Head clinic, Dr. Jack McConnell, serves as an advisor to our LVIM Clinic. The LVIM Clinic will practice the same "Culture of Caring" philosophy that has made the Hilton Head Clinic such a success. The "Culture of Caring" is a two-part philosophy. The first part is the belief that healing does not begin with a pill or a therapy. Healing begins when you greet someone at the door, invite them in, and take an interest in their lives?and give them some of the dignity and respect that they often don't get anywhere else. The second part of the "Culture of Caring" is the belief that the greatest healing doesn't go to the people who come to the clinic to receive care, but rather to the volunteers that go there to give it. 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. Through the support of a capital campaign, foundation grants, and ongoing fundraising, the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic will create a compassionate and nurturing environment for patients, volunteers, and staff. The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine (LVIM) Clinic is a volunteer run medical clinic that is being developed by the Watson Clinic Foundation in cooperation with Polk County Medical Association, Polk County Dental Association, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, the City of Lakeland, Polk County School Board, and many local civic organizations. Volunteers will provide routine non-emergency medical, dental, and counseling services to over 20,000 of our working uninsured who have no medical insurance and no place to go for routine medical care. Over 100 physicians, 150 nurses and 300 non-medical volunteers will provide the care for our patients at the LVIM Clinic. Our vision is based on a similar clinic in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The Hilton Head Volunteers in Medicine Clinic opened in 1994. It serves more than 16,000 patients each year through the efforts of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses, and non-medical volunteers. The founder of the Hilton Head clinic, Dr. Jack McConnell, serves as an advisor to our LVIM Clinic. The LVIM Clinic will practice the same "Culture of Caring" philosophy that has made the Hilton Head Clinic such a success. The "Culture of Caring" is a two-part philosophy. The first part is the belief that healing does not begin with a pill or a therapy. Healing begins when you greet someone at the door, invite them in, and take an interest in their lives?and give them some of the dignity and respect that they often don't get anywhere else. The second part of the "Culture of Caring" is the belief that the greatest healing doesn't go to the people who come to the clinic to receive care, but rather to the volunteers that go there to give it. 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. Through the support of a capital campaign, foundation grants, and ongoing fundraising, the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic will create a compassionate and nurturing environment for patients, volunteers, and staff.
Services Provided/Benefit to State:
The LVIM Clinic will provide 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 will provide 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, COPD, Coronary Artery Disease, Upper Respiratory Infections, Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infections, Sinus Infections, etc. Whenever possible, medications and laboratory serves will be given to patients. 2. General dental: LVIM Clinic will provide dental 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 After food and shelter there is perhaps no more important need than health care. The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic offers the State of Florida an easily replicated model of public/private partnering to solve one of society?s most pressing crises: providing healthcare to the working uninsured. Through its offering a continuum of routine medical care to a currently underserved population, the LVIM Clinic will benefit the local community with preventive education and by treating minor illnesses and chronic conditions before they become major emergencies which burden the local Hospital?s resources. By providing a place that both children and the parents may visit for their healthcare needs, the Clinic will contribute to family health stability, ensuring that children are able to go to school ready to learn. When its citizens are healthy and relieved of the fears that come with not having access to health care, the State benefits through increased productivity and an overall increase in quality of life. The Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic offers a way of making a population which often sees itself as forgotten, those who make too much to benefit from government entitlements, but too little to enjoy many benefits of our booming economy, to be included as a valued part of community life.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
In order to ensure that the Clinic is indeed providing the services intended several outcomes will be measured. It is necessary to look at our objectives and how they are conceptualized. 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 visit. 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 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 natality and birth-related indicators, infant mortality, infectious disease control, cancer, dental health indicators and death from major causes. With the results of this report as a baseline, it will be possible to track how the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic improves of Polk County and the Greater Lakeland area. There are also 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 Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic?s effect on the quality of life if its patients. 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. It is possible to track the diagnoses and procedure codes from the ED at the local Hospital. Prior to the opening of the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, it will be possible to create a baseline of severity of medical procedures/diagnoses. The same report will be assessed on an annual basis. We also want to ensure that all children are healthy and ready to learn. We speculate that 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 how many school days the child is missing and the relationship to academic performance. This will also 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, the number of hours the volunteers work and the organization they represent (whether that be a religious or community services organization). Analyzing these measures will allow us to determine whether or not we have achieved our goals and whether there are statistically significant relationships between the factors.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:				$1,000,000
Total cost of the project:		$6,500,000

Request has been made to fund:			Construction
Is there Local Government or Private match for this request?					Yes
	Cash Amount:	$1,000,000		In-Kind Amount:	$500,000
Was this project previously funded by the State?					No
Is future-year funding likely to be requested?					No
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 Watson Clinic Foundation undertook a two pronged comprehensive study of:
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?					No