Project Access: Caring for the Uninsured
PI - Mark DeHaven
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
The community-based participatory prevention project, "Project Access: Caring for the Uninsured," was initiated in 1998 to increase health care access for the uninsured working poor of Dallas County, Texas. By creating an inclusive and comprehensive organizational and administrative infrastructure, Project Access has coordinated existing community-based health clinics, volunteer primary and specialty care physicians, local hospitals and pharmacies, and faith-based organizations to care for the uninsured. The present project investigates the effect of Project Access on reducing unnecessary emergency room use and improving functional health status among the working poor. The hypothesis is that the patients enrolled in Project Access will have significantly fewer non-emergent ER visits and hospitalizations than those not enrolled, and that their health care costs will be significantly lower. The community care coordination provided through Project Access is also being tested for its effectiveness in increasing recommended cancer screening, identifying and better managing patients with diabetes, and identifying underlying mental disease and improving access to services for the mentally ill. The final component of the project is a partnership with local congregations, which provides opportunities fro developing healthy lifestyles through health promotion programs in local congregations. By integrating primary, secondary, and tertiary preventive services with community-based health promotion activities, the project promotes healthy lifestyles among uninsured patients in a way that helps create a healthy community.
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Page last modified: September 28, 2006
Content source: Office of the Chief Science Officer (OCSO)