Project Access of Northern Virginia Provides Specialty Health Care to Those in Need
By Joseph Elias Hight
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So the problem of expanding access to health care to uninsured and under-insured Virginians remains. Project Access of Northern Virginia (PANV) is trying to do its part for those in need in Fairfax County and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church.
Claudia Tellez, Project Access director, says that PANV began operating on June 1, 2007. “The first six months were spent assessing the needs and capacities of all the partners involved in PANV,” she said. “PANV began processing referrals in January 2008 and since then, referral volume activity has steadily ramped up.” To date, 85 patients have been referred to specialists for treatment. “And while that may seem like a small number relative to the need, the pace of referrals will pick up as the project becomes more widely known,” Tellez added.
The Medical Society of Northern Virginia and INOVA Alexandria Hospital’s Healthy Communities Access Program combined their efforts to create PANV in 2006.
In 2007, PANV used the grant to recruit doctors in various specialties to volunteer to provide care to low-income, uninsured or under-insured patients. This year, PANV’s $170,000 budget will be funded by the Medical Society of Northern Virginia. To date, PANV counts 130 volunteer physician specialists who have signed up to participate in the program. Specialties include dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, general surgery, gynecology, infectious disease, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, pulmonology, rheumatology and urology.
Buncombe County in North Carolina developed the project access model for providing access to health care in1995. Since then, the model has been replicated in various guises in communities throughout the country, including three in Virginia. In addition to the one in Northern Virginia, there is one in Richmond and in Roanoke. Each community has adapted the model to better fit its own particular circumstances.
Participating Northern Virginia “safety net” clinics, including Alexandria Neighborhood Health Services, Inc.; the Culmore Clinic; the Fairfax County Community Health Care Network; the Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic and Northern Virginia Family Services, refer patients to PANV when a patient seeks primary medical care and is deemed to need the care of a specialist.
Tellez said, “PANV is only possible with the participation of the physicians who have volunteered to provide pro bono care,” adding, “They have volunteered to do this. It is remarkable given the current pressures in the health care industry.” PANV is particularly indebted to its Physician Recruitment Committee, including David Chow, MD; Brenda Dintiman, MD, dermatology; Mark Hughes, MD, emergency medicine; John Klousia, MD, urology; Linda Mosely, MD, plastic surgery; Mary Schmidt, MD, infectious diseases and Joel Temme, MD, internal medicine.
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