WATCH backers: Program deserves funding
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on May 31, 2015 1:50 AM
In the years since Wayne Action Teams for Community Health began providing health care for the uninsured in Wayne County, its director has seen the program grow beyond the mobile van to a satellite clinic at the YMCA and a third clinic behind Wayne Memorial Hospital.
"There are 71 free clinics in the state, free or charitable," Sissy Lee-Elmore points out. "We're the only free mobile primary care clinic in the state. We're the only free clinic on a hospital clinic in the state. We're the only free clinic inside a YMCA in the nation."
In addition to securing grants to sustain the program since 2000, she has also leveraged $2.6 million for the county -- eliciting funds for the WISH school-based health centers; increasing the school nurse program from two to six nurses; obtaining grants for the dental hygiene program at Wayne Community College, doubling its enrollment from 30 to 60 students; receiving a grant for the WCC nursing program, bumping student numbers from 72 to 88; netting a $500,000 nursing stipend for the program at Wayne Memorial Hospital, a $500,000 grant for the medication scanning program at the hospital and a $305,000 grant for GoWayneGo.
And that doesn't count other efforts she has worked on, including expansion of Stoney Creek Park from 10 acres to 58, working with the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program since 1999 and assisting with WIL, a program that works with treatment and prevention of obesity.
These days, though, she has had to turn her attention to one glaring problem -- losing funding from the very county her program serves, as the county commission has recently taken aim at cutting non-profits.
"The county has given us $1.2 million over the past 12 years," she said. "They started at $30,000 (12 years ago) and they have gone up until they got to $220,000 three years ago.
"For things that are really outside of the WATCH health care program, I have done $2.6 million so I really think that for the $1.2 million they have given over the years, I have done $2.6 million. That's a good bargain."
It's also a good return on the investment, she said.
"For every dollar, we provide $7.13 worth of care. "We have tried to make our revenues meet the needs of the community -- we're on the bus routes, we go where they live, we make our service more accessible."
The idea for WATCH actually started 20 years ago, she said, springing from a meeting of 100 leaders in the community doing an assessment with one question in mind, "What's the best way to go?"
"(County Attorney) Borden Parker was one of the people and the city manager and the county manager," she said. "All the people and their wisdom decided this was the best way to do it and with the best outcomes and the least outlay of money. In the end, it's the right thing to do.
"This is a medical home. We provide the continuity of care. The emergency room provides acute emergency episodic care. We provide a medical home and management of a person's diseases and that's the difference."
The program has grown consistently, and the need is not going away. Last year, 4,775 unduplicated patient visits were recorded. Over the years, WATCH has been there for 12,000 patients, Mrs. Lee-Elmore said.
"People try to come from, I'm telling you, Lenoir, Greene, Johnston, because no one else has what we have," she said. And yet the guidelines are very clear -- WATCH only serves Wayne County residents. And only those without insurance.
Even established patients, if they get on disability or obtain insurance, they are immediately terminated.
"Pay Nav, a system that the hospital has, we key in and it runs through all the insurances," she said. "If they have insurance, it tells us and we tell them, 'I'm sorry, you don't qualify for our service.
"Or if someone gets insurance while they're a patient, they're supposed to tell us. They may not always tells us. But if we call in a prescription, they'll call and tell us that person just paid with their Blue Cross card. We'll call the patient right away and tell them they no longer have our services."
The program is not just for the "indigent," as some have suggested.
"I cannot define indigent," Mrs. Lee-Elmore said. "We see the uninsured who live in Wayne County. You have to think of, this could be us tomorrow. If I lose my job, I don't have insurance.
"Most people know people who have been here before or are still here. Anybody who talks to somebody who's been here will understand."
Melissa Whiteside and her husband were both self-employed but could not afford health insurance.
"I had health problems," she said. "I needed medicine monthly."
The couple also had sons, making their health care a priority.
"There was no money left for me to go after them," Mrs. Whiteside said. "I was a (WATCH) patient for about 10 years."
She made the decision to go back to school, receiving her medical assisting degree from Wayne Community College in 2014. When a job came open as medical office assistant with WATCH last November, she was hired.
"I got insurance immediately. I was hired by Wayne Memorial Hospital. My whole family's covered now. Thank goodness for health insurance. But WATCH was a blessing for us," she said. "Now I'm not just working but I'm giving back to what was given to me.
"When I'm in there with the patients, I have been in their shoes. There's just a lot of people that are no different than me -- they need health care."
Mrs. Lee-Elmore said the funding from the county commission does more than simply put money in the program budget.
"We need their money to leverage other money," she said, explaining that whenever she meets with Duke Energy or Kate B. Reynolds Foundation and other entities doling out grant funding, there is a consistent question asked -- "What are you getting from your county? What are you getting from your city? What are you getting from your hospital?"
Murray Porter, WATCH board member and co-chairman of the annual golf tournament fundraiser, said he has been "kind of disappointed in the approach" recently taken by the commission.
"The county's more of a support to us than they realize," he said. "Not just getting us started, their leadership and their funding support through the years. As we have raised money from grants, (funding sources) wanted to know what your local folks are doing.
"WATCH is doing such a tremendous job and serving so many people but it also is getting this additional labwork money, which is about $500,000 a year, and these additional prescription drugs, which is about $2 million a year, that if we for some reason lost our funding, went out of business, there's just no other entity that can replace this."
Retired physician Dr. Joe McLamb, in his first term on the board, agreed.
"I have been in this community a long time. This community still needs WATCH," he said. "I think for the money invested, this community is getting a lot of good health care and I think we're also creating environments that are good for health care.
"I don't know why we got caught up in the groups, the non-profits. That's not our only source of funds but it's a significant source of funding. There's no other substitute for WATCH."
Mrs. Lee-Elmore, frustrated by the turn of events that might hobble the local budget, maintained the program's value.
"If somebody, say for example if the Health Department or the hospital or another physician practice decided to operate WATCH, they're likely not going to get the free medications, they're not going to get the $569,000 worth of free labs, they're not going to get volunteer providers, they're not going to get clerical volunteers, they're not going to get me," she said. "They're not going to get donated space and overhead and HR and accounting and training, all the things that we get, they're not going to get.
"So they're not going to be able to operate it in the margin that we're able to operate on. This is the best way we can provide free care to the uninsured of Wayne County. It's the best model."