The medical providers at the Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Clinic treat individuals with a wide variety of illnesses and injuries, similar to what any provider in a typical Family Medicine practice would see. What differentiates the HCH clients from those patients typically seen in a community setting, however, is two-fold:
- Homeless persons frequently present with acute illnesses that are aggravated by living conditions on the street. Examples include: infections, blunt or penetrating trauma, broken bones, and diseases associated with poor hygiene, poor nutrition, and spending many hours each day on one’s feet; and
- The daily struggles faced by individuals coping with homelessness can be so overwhelming that taking care of one’s health often assumes a lower priority than basic survival activities, such as finding food and shelter. As a result, homeless persons often present to the Clinic with advanced stages of diseases or conditions that, if detected earlier, would have been more easily treatable.
While comprehensive primary care services are available at the Clinic, specialty health services generally are not. Limitations in grant funding make it difficult for the HCH Clinic to contract for specialty services, leaving the Clinic’s providers few referral options for their clients’ needs.
The Clinic’s case management staff works with each client to determine eligibility for a variety of federal and state assistance programs, including eligibility for health coverage through Medicare or AHCCCS (Medicaid). Despite the expertise of the case managers, however, it may take weeks or even months to determine a client’s eligibility for coverage.
Because of the urgency of the clients’ medical needs and their inability to routinely access specialty medical services, Circle the City assists with financial support to pay for needed services such as specialty clinic visits, diagnostic tests and surgical procedures. Through agreements with other community providers, many of these services are obtained for nominal fees.
The types of services Circle the City may fund include:
- Diagnostic tests such as CT Scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scans, Biopsies and Cardiac Catheterizations;
- Specialty consultations including Orthopedics, Neurology, General Surgery, Cardiology, Neurosurgery, Endocrinology, etc.;
- Surgical procedures such as fracture repair, hernia repair, gallbladder removal, etc.
All referrals to Circle the City for funding specialty health services are coordinated through the HCH Clinic and must be deemed medically necessary by the Clinic’s medical staff.
If you are interested in supporting this program, please consider making a monetary donation. Any amount will help!