Health care reform likely won’t address the full spectrum of need among uninsured and underinsured patients in North Georgia, a local doctor says.
“Even with health care reform, although it may be helpful to a lot of people, there are still going to be people who fall through the cracks,” said Wiley Smith, a retired Army doctor living in Dalton, Ga.
But Dr. Smith, a native of Alabama, has taken it upon himself to help fill those gaps in health care. Last year in Dalton, he helped launch a medical outreach ministry called the Grace Medical Outreach Ministry, a partnership with Grace Presbyterian Church. The ministry works to get health care and health education directly to those who need it, he said.
Dr. Smith does home visits — what he calls “an old-fashioned way of doing things” — and the ministry also organizes free health care clinics. Many ministry patients are uninsured, underinsured or undocumented immigrants, he said, with no other access to affordable care.
He tries to connect patients with primary care services and address underlying or chronic medical conditions for which they may not be getting needed treatments.
“If you are not taking good care of (chronic conditions) or receiving some basic level of medical care, you’re bound to have problems that are much more devastating, such as heart attacks and strokes,” he said.
Dalton has a large Hispanic population that often faces roadblocks to care, such as a language barriers and uninsured status, said Nancy Kennedy, executive director of the Northwest Georgia Healthcare Partnership. Six years ago, the group started Promotores de Salud — Promoters of Health — to help Hispanic immigrants and some non-Hispanic patients get access to basic affordable health care and provide basic health education.
U.S. census estimates say that at least 29 percent of Whitfield County’s population is Hispanic and 65 percent of Dalton public schoolchildren are Hispanic, Ms. Kennedy said. The needs are great and Dr. Smith’s medical outreach is helping address the overwhelming demand for care, she said.
“We need every vehicle we can possibly have in this community to provide care for those that are underserved,” she said. She noted that the home visits are a critical feature of Dr. Smith’s outreach.
“There truly are people who do not have transportation. I think maybe we don’t see that. We think everybody has a car,” she said. “His service is valuable and it makes it even more valuable that he goes to where the people are.”
HEALTH IN GEORGIA
* 1.6 million — Nonelderly uninsured residents
* 9.8 percent — Georgia diabetic population
* 8.2 percent — U.S. diabetic population
* 213.2 — Georgia heart disease death rate per 100,000
* 200.2 — U.S. heart disease death rate per 100,000
SOURCE: Kaiser Family Foundation