Todd
10-31-2013, 01:41 PM
This is a older story, but in light of everyone finding out that Obamacare was a farce and Dr's leaving health networks left and right, and people thinking they only have the Government to turn to rather than their communities, I thought we should revisit a real model for affordable healthcare for the poor.
You know what the maddening thing is? There is very little information on the net about this program and virtually no videos expounding on their model. It's like it's trying to be hidden from the public eye. ;)
I cannot imbed the video.
http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-Visits-Dr-Dan-Bells-ECHO-Health-Clinic-Video
Everyday heroes don't always make headlines. Some aren't strong, brave or even old enough to drive, but these men, women and children step up when times are tough.
Along with People magazine, Oprah's celebrating random acts of kindness and saluting those who take the time to help neighbors, strangers and single moms.
In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Dr. Oz meets one couple who's doing just that.
When their small, working-class town was hit hard by the country's economic crisis, Dr. Dan Bell and his wife, Suzie, made it their mission to make sure everyone in their community had access to free healthcare. Soon after, they started the ECHO Health Clinic.
Watch Dr. Oz's visit to ECHO Health Clinic.
"We were looking at how you really live your faith," Dr. Bell says. "We're at the age where you're looking at, 'Are you doing all you can do with your life and finishing strong?'"
Twice a month, Dr. Bell, Suzie and a staff of 250 dedicated volunteers transform a church gymnasium into a full-service medical center. At ECHO Health Clinic, patients have access to private exam rooms, a makeshift pharmacy, free meals and a triage area, which offers immediate care to those in need.
"From medical care and counseling to serving up a hot meal, everyone is made to feel at home," Dr. Oz says. "There's sort of a unity of spirit that I feel when I'm here. And, you know, it's not high tech, but it's high touch."
Jeff, one of 46 million Americans without health insurance, tells Dr. Oz he wouldn't be able to afford his diabetes and neuropathy medications without access to ECHO.
"If this clinic wasn't here, what would you do?" Dr. Oz asks.
"Probably fall through the cracks," Jeff says.
Many may consider Dr. Bell and Suzie heroes, but they say their community deserves all the credit.
"We're only about 2,000 [people]. We don't even have a stoplight, but yet, we have a place that people can come and get care," Dr. Bell says. "To me, that's heroic."
Suzie says something magical happens when a community comes together. "We sit down, we eat, we break bread together," she says. "We are able to just commune and connect as human
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Heroes-in-Hard-Times
http://archive.people.com/people/archive/jpgs/20090420/20090420-750-115.jpg
http://www.echofreeclinic.org/
Tandy Belt tried to disappear into the crowd as she stood in line, ashamed, at the Eureka Springs Christian Health Outreach clinic on a chilly fall evening two years ago. "I was wearing a borrowed sweat suit, no socks, and I was shaking," recalls Tandy, 56, who found herself penniless and lacking health insurance after a financially disastrous divorce. Seeing her discomfort, Dr. Dan Bell, the free clinic's cofounder, put his arm around her shoulders. "How are you?" he asked in his gentle drawl. Ten minutes later Tandy walked out, her blood-pressure prescription filled, her shame eased. "Without this," she says, "I don't know what would have happened to me."
If it were up to Dan Bell, no one in this Arkansas resort town in the Ozark Mountains would ever worry about how to pay for health care again. And these days, far fewer need to, thanks to the twice-monthly clinic he and wife Suzie, 57, started in a church gym in November 2005. Staffed entirely by 200 volunteers from town—hairdressers and secretaries and loan officers work alongside off-duty doctors and nurses—the health center has treated about 1,200 people, many of them uninsured minimum-wage workers who haven't set foot in a physician's office in years. "I'd hear about people struggling to afford the doctor, and the next thing you'd know they'd be in the emergency room with some major disease," says Dan, 59, who has practiced family medicine for 25 years in Eureka Springs. "This was one thing we could do." In a region hit hard by a decline in construction and where nearly half of the town's 2,300 residents lack insurance, the clinic, says Mayor Dani Joy, "fills such a void."
What makes it work: Everyone has a job. Converting the gymnasium at Faith Christian Family Church into a walk-in clinic on the second and fourth Thursday of every month, a small army of volunteers takes to its work like a theater crew setting up a show. Up go partitions to create examination rooms; in comes a mobile EKG and blood-pressure monitors. Retired jeweler Carmen Smith draws on her experience as a former nurse to take temperatures and blood pressure. Hairstylist Barbara Dicks helps Suzie, a speech pathologist, handle patient relations. Computer analyst Sam Ward runs the system for the clinic's pharmacy. "We do this out of love for our fellow man," says Sam, "and we're all getting something back."
Among the grateful patients: Dale Ertel, 56, who had gone without prescribed prostate medication for four years; now Dale, who makes $13,000 a year delivering newspapers and running an educational exhibit, has his prescription renewed every three months. "I used to be so scared about my health," he says. "This place is a blessing." Virginia Hillman fell into a severe depression after her husband died; Dan Bell got her on medication while teaching her some coping skills. "Dr. Bell," says Virginia, 57, "helped me get back on my feet."
Things are looking up for Tandy too. She's newly remarried, has a job as a marketing director and, after losing weight, no longer needs blood-pressure medication. She hopes to return to the clinic—only this time as a volunteer. These days, she says, "I feel pretty strong."
You know what the maddening thing is? There is very little information on the net about this program and virtually no videos expounding on their model. It's like it's trying to be hidden from the public eye. ;)
I cannot imbed the video.
http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-Visits-Dr-Dan-Bells-ECHO-Health-Clinic-Video
Everyday heroes don't always make headlines. Some aren't strong, brave or even old enough to drive, but these men, women and children step up when times are tough.
Along with People magazine, Oprah's celebrating random acts of kindness and saluting those who take the time to help neighbors, strangers and single moms.
In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Dr. Oz meets one couple who's doing just that.
When their small, working-class town was hit hard by the country's economic crisis, Dr. Dan Bell and his wife, Suzie, made it their mission to make sure everyone in their community had access to free healthcare. Soon after, they started the ECHO Health Clinic.
Watch Dr. Oz's visit to ECHO Health Clinic.
"We were looking at how you really live your faith," Dr. Bell says. "We're at the age where you're looking at, 'Are you doing all you can do with your life and finishing strong?'"
Twice a month, Dr. Bell, Suzie and a staff of 250 dedicated volunteers transform a church gymnasium into a full-service medical center. At ECHO Health Clinic, patients have access to private exam rooms, a makeshift pharmacy, free meals and a triage area, which offers immediate care to those in need.
"From medical care and counseling to serving up a hot meal, everyone is made to feel at home," Dr. Oz says. "There's sort of a unity of spirit that I feel when I'm here. And, you know, it's not high tech, but it's high touch."
Jeff, one of 46 million Americans without health insurance, tells Dr. Oz he wouldn't be able to afford his diabetes and neuropathy medications without access to ECHO.
"If this clinic wasn't here, what would you do?" Dr. Oz asks.
"Probably fall through the cracks," Jeff says.
Many may consider Dr. Bell and Suzie heroes, but they say their community deserves all the credit.
"We're only about 2,000 [people]. We don't even have a stoplight, but yet, we have a place that people can come and get care," Dr. Bell says. "To me, that's heroic."
Suzie says something magical happens when a community comes together. "We sit down, we eat, we break bread together," she says. "We are able to just commune and connect as human
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Heroes-in-Hard-Times
http://archive.people.com/people/archive/jpgs/20090420/20090420-750-115.jpg
http://www.echofreeclinic.org/
Tandy Belt tried to disappear into the crowd as she stood in line, ashamed, at the Eureka Springs Christian Health Outreach clinic on a chilly fall evening two years ago. "I was wearing a borrowed sweat suit, no socks, and I was shaking," recalls Tandy, 56, who found herself penniless and lacking health insurance after a financially disastrous divorce. Seeing her discomfort, Dr. Dan Bell, the free clinic's cofounder, put his arm around her shoulders. "How are you?" he asked in his gentle drawl. Ten minutes later Tandy walked out, her blood-pressure prescription filled, her shame eased. "Without this," she says, "I don't know what would have happened to me."
If it were up to Dan Bell, no one in this Arkansas resort town in the Ozark Mountains would ever worry about how to pay for health care again. And these days, far fewer need to, thanks to the twice-monthly clinic he and wife Suzie, 57, started in a church gym in November 2005. Staffed entirely by 200 volunteers from town—hairdressers and secretaries and loan officers work alongside off-duty doctors and nurses—the health center has treated about 1,200 people, many of them uninsured minimum-wage workers who haven't set foot in a physician's office in years. "I'd hear about people struggling to afford the doctor, and the next thing you'd know they'd be in the emergency room with some major disease," says Dan, 59, who has practiced family medicine for 25 years in Eureka Springs. "This was one thing we could do." In a region hit hard by a decline in construction and where nearly half of the town's 2,300 residents lack insurance, the clinic, says Mayor Dani Joy, "fills such a void."
What makes it work: Everyone has a job. Converting the gymnasium at Faith Christian Family Church into a walk-in clinic on the second and fourth Thursday of every month, a small army of volunteers takes to its work like a theater crew setting up a show. Up go partitions to create examination rooms; in comes a mobile EKG and blood-pressure monitors. Retired jeweler Carmen Smith draws on her experience as a former nurse to take temperatures and blood pressure. Hairstylist Barbara Dicks helps Suzie, a speech pathologist, handle patient relations. Computer analyst Sam Ward runs the system for the clinic's pharmacy. "We do this out of love for our fellow man," says Sam, "and we're all getting something back."
Among the grateful patients: Dale Ertel, 56, who had gone without prescribed prostate medication for four years; now Dale, who makes $13,000 a year delivering newspapers and running an educational exhibit, has his prescription renewed every three months. "I used to be so scared about my health," he says. "This place is a blessing." Virginia Hillman fell into a severe depression after her husband died; Dan Bell got her on medication while teaching her some coping skills. "Dr. Bell," says Virginia, 57, "helped me get back on my feet."
Things are looking up for Tandy too. She's newly remarried, has a job as a marketing director and, after losing weight, no longer needs blood-pressure medication. She hopes to return to the clinic—only this time as a volunteer. These days, she says, "I feel pretty strong."