QI
President’s Letter
In each of this year’s previous publications, I’ve briefly mentioned a new program launched in 2021 on our side of Tennessee, Project Access West Tennessee (“PAWT”). It’s time to pick up the pace so that West Tennessee can share in the same benefits this program has produced in other areas of the state. Why PAWT works is because it runs differently and with proven impact, but it absolutely only works if you are involved. Please read that last sentence again. PAWT program information is readily available through the Memphis Medical Society, PAWT Executive Director Nicole Scroggins, and Clint Cummins, MHA, CEO of the Memphis Medical Foundation and the Memphis Medical Society. They can tell you how to refer patients in need, give you information about the patient screening process, offer suggestions on how to determine how many patients you or your group might consider seeing, explain the after-care documentation needed, etc. They will take you through every step of the process. The first question you are likely asking yourself is: Why does this program deserve my attention and participation? Many of our colleagues already help in providing medical care to low-income and uninsured patients at safety-net clinics, hospitals, health departments, and federally-qualified health centers. As always, demand is high, resources limited, volunteer hours are frequently stretched past elasticity, patients fall through the gaps or still cannot reach a care provider most suited to their needs despite best intentions. Basic principles of economics apply: when demand is not met by supply, then seek ways to increase and/or vary the supply. That’s how Project Access works. By increasing the supply of us physicians (primary care, specialists, subspecialists, surgeons, anesthesia groups, pathology groups, diagnostics – every aspect of medical care) willing to expand our practices by seeing even one additional low-income, uninsured PAWT patient per month at no charge, West Tennessee will begin to see its overall community health start to improve in coordination with the various sites already seeing similar patients. This is a level of expanded and coordinated health care for the low-income, uninsured patient population never before seen in our area.
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MMs Quarterly Fall 2021cover final.pdf 6
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