Addressing the Health Needs of the Uninsured: One Community's Solution

Providing high-quality health care to poor and uninsured individuals has been a challenge to the US health care system for decades. Often, patients do not seek care until they are in a crisis, or they seek care at a health care system while not addressing their primary care needs. To report on a community that has sought to change this dynamic with the development of an all-volunteer practitioner-run clinic model. Perspective on a successful volunteer-run safety-net clinic. Volunteers in Medicine on Hilton Head Island, SC, provides free health care, with more than 28,000 eligible patient visits annually, for the underserved population. This clinic is self-funded through donations and charity events and accepts no federal money. The patients are not asked to pay a fee for service. Most medical specialties are represented at the clinic, and many partnerships are in place for referrals for more advanced procedures such as surgery. All health care clinicians are volunteers, including physicians, nurses, dentists, and mental health professionals. The quality of care meets or exceeds national recommendations on many measurements, including mammography and Papanicolaou test screening rates. Safety-net clinics such as Volunteers in Medicine are a needed and viable option to the provision of health care to the vulnerable, often unseen members of society.