continued from coverFlexibility of Core Operating Helps Clinics Meet Pressing NeedsTCWF has provided grants of core operating support to agencies across California to help them sustain their capacity to provide services. The following are several examples of how agencies are addressing different needs. Enhanced Staffing
“Foundations and other health care funders need to get the message that core operations are critical, especially for organizations serving the neediest people in the state,” Rogow said. TCWF previously funded the EOC to start a teen reproductive health clinic, which now accounts for almost 40 percent of its clients, and to support a collaborative in northern San Luis Obispo County to improve accessibility and coordination of services. “Now they need to catch up administratively in order to sustain that growth,” said Saba Brelvi, TCWF program director. “It’s unrealistic to think that community-based agencies can absorb larger client loads without also investing in infrastructure and administrative systems.” The EOC is using the current grant to add a nurse practitioner. With the increased revenue from more patient visits, the EOC has also hired a resource developer to concentrate on fundraising. “Foundations and other health care funders need to get the message that core operations are critical, especially for organizations serving the neediest people in the state.”
“We’re really working on reducing administrative barriers to care,” Rogow said. “We provide same-day care for emergency medical issues and immediate birth control help, scheduling exams later.” Future plans include adding staff to the Arroyo Grande clinic, which serves a growing Latino population, Rogow said. Currently, that clinic is open only two days a week. A capital campaign is underway to retire the clinic mortgage so that funds can go toward providing services instead. Fiscal Management Systems The Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAP), which opened in 1998, is using its core operating grant to continue strengthening clinical and operational functions. A previous TCWF grant allowed CHAP to hire both a medical director and a clinic operations manager and to implement a quality assurance program that streamlined operations and shortened clients’ waiting and visit times. The new three-year, $150,000 grant expands infrastructure to implement an in-house billing system.
“We’re so appreciative of this funding source, where we don’t have to worry about starting new programs but can concentrate on strengthening our current operations.” CHAP provides nearly 40,000 uninsured, underserved San Gabriel Valley residents with culturally sensitive primary and preventive medical and dental services and health education. The target population is 76 percent Latino and 15 percent African-American. “Having control over our billing process will produce big benefits, allowing us to capture everything we do as a clinic in a timely manner,” said Margaret B. Martinez, CHAP’s executive director. Billing currently is handled by an offsite contractor, making verification and validation of information about medical procedures difficult and lengthening the processing time to as long as three weeks. With the goal of bringing this function in-house, a billing assistant has been hired and transition to a full-time chief financial officer is underway. “Building sustainability of health care services is a major objective of our grantmaking,” said Sandra Martínez, TCWF program director. “Organizations like CHAP take up the slack when state and local government services cut back. They are vital to a large population in California. Getting more efficient fiscal management systems in place will have a positive impact throughout the organization.” continued... |
The Economic
Opportunity Commission
(EOC) of San Luis Obispo
County is using a three-year,
$90,000 grant to maintain
reproductive health services
for a large, underserved,
low-income population.
Shrinking health care
resources in the county have
led to significant pressures
on the EOC, a nonprofit
community action agency.
The county’s only public
hospital closed in the past
year; the county health
department will shut its
family planning clinic in
south San Luis Obispo
County this summer,
shifting its client load to the
EOC; and the region needs
another 75 family
practitioners to meet the needs of its residents,
according to Sally Rogow, EOC planning and
development specialist.
Summer 2004
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