By Kathryn Keaton
“Project Access Tarrant County has coordinated over $20 million in donated health services.”
I’ve written sentences like this countless times—I’m sure you’ve seen this or something like it from us and from various charitable agencies. Quantifying donated care isn’t an easy task, but it is necessary to share any nonprofit’s impact and, really, the “return on investment.” So how do we quantify this for our supporters and donors?
Well, let’s walk through a patient’s story together.
“Nancy” is a 44-year-old Hispanic female who was referred by Mission Arlington for a hernia repair. She is single and lives with family members. She has two minor children and works as a housekeeper. She needs a medical interpreter for her appointments and has her own transportation.
Once the patient has been entered, screened, and medically approved, the hard work begins. We aim to initiate the enrollment process as soon as medical director approval is granted. This is currently true for many specialties, but not all—and the availability can change at any moment.
Enrollment is hard—and as I often respond when asked what documentation is required, the unintentionally vague answer is, “It depends.” Part of working with our population means that not everyone has documents often assumed to be commonplace. Income is often hardest to document, especially with patients who may get paid in cash only, not have a tax return, or not even have a bank account. In addition, we must identify in advance at which hospital the patient will most likely have surgery—each hospital’s requirements are different, even within the same system.
This chart shows the cost of Nancy’s care through Project Access—the “real dollars” spent on her prescreening and enrollment processes and coordination of her medical care to completion. In Nancy’s case, the full administrative cost is $627. Since she had six appointments, this leads to an average cost of $105 per medical appointment.
Here’s where the magic happens!
PATC receives statements from each of the donating entities. The physicians, hospitals, anesthesia providers, and any others providing services all send insurance claim forms or some form of a “mock bill” so we can document the donated value for each service. The cost for Nancy’s care totaled over $25,000. This is not “real” money, but it shows the value of the care that $627 provided. That means that the return on investment for Nancy’s hernia repair is over 97 percent!
Currently, the Project Access website is housed in the TCAM section of the Tarrant County Medical Society website; however, in the coming weeks, Project Access Tarrant County is excited to launch its standalone website under “Tarrant County Academy of Medicine.” This in-house platform will have many benefits, including the following:
• Increased Donations: Streamlined online donation process and targeted campaigns
• Enhanced Visibility: PATC will have increased visibility
• Streamlining Daily Operations: PATC can use this website to inform patients about eligibility and include online forms
Most importantly, having a dedicated website will make showing our impact and patient stories easier than ever—and supporting PATC will be easier than ever.
We’ve been using the phrase, “$1,000 can save a life” lately—and this will be a focus of our new website. By showing real patient stories and the administrative cost of their donated medical services (an average of $1,000 per patient), we plan to enable you to follow along our patients’ journeys.
Stay tuned—we can’t wait to bring this vision to life!
Tarrant County Physician Online 