As part of Intermountain's ongoing efforts to improve access to care, we've recently collaborated with two community clinics in Salt Lake City, the Maliheh Free Clinic and the Polizzi Clinic, to help patients access services they need — including free prescription drugs and faster lab results. Here's how Intermountain has collaborated with the clinics to improve care.
Nathan Peterson, Intermountain's Community Health manager for the Salt Lake area
When the Maliheh Free Clinic got news that some prescription drug discount programs were being discontinued, they reached out to Intermountain for help. Maliheh, which is a primary care clinic for low-income, uninsured patients, is the largest free clinic in Utah. The clinic served approximately 5,300 patients in the past year, and the inability to dispense these drugs would have a big impact on the health of their patients.
The drugs were for things like treating children who have certain types of epilepsy and experience seizures, treating manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and migraine headaches, and treating excess uric acid in the blood, or hyperuricemia, in patients with gout, says Nathan Peterson, Intermountain's Community Health manager for the Salt Lake area.
"These are all drugs that help people live the healthiest lives possible," says Nathan. "They're not just pills, but so much more — they represent hope and relief."
Nathan approached the Intermountain Pharmacy Services team, including Buck Stanford, pharmacy operations director, and Barbara Keyser, pharmacy tech supervisor, who recommended that the Maliheh Clinic be added to the Dispensary of Hope program. The program is a partnership between Intermountain Healthcare and a national charitable medication distributor that gives low-income, uninsured patients access to medications free of cost.
Nathan says, "Previously only patients at Intermountain hospitals and clinics could access the Dispensary of Hope program, but Maliheh has been authorized to be the first external partner in Utah to participate. It's a win-win for all of us, as many of these patients come to Intermountain for care at some point."
"This inefficiency caused a challenge in continuity of care for patients at Polizzi, since many of these patients lack reliable transportation, and it caused delays in their lab work." says Nathan. "It was especially difficult when a patient needed labs, say, for drug testing before they started a job and had challenges getting it done."
The Polizzi Clinic approached the Intermountain Central Lab for ideas to improve. The lab team offered to have the Polizzi Clinic's lab work be managed directly by the Central Lab, which would remove the Maliheh Clinic lab as an extra step in the care process.
Karen Brownell, executive director of Laboratory Services, says kudos go to Emily Shake, outreach phlebotomy manager, and Trish Olson, an outreach phlebotomy supervisor. "They put together a process so patients can go to any number of draw stations to get their laboratory tests drawn," says Karen. "Our lab turnaround times have always been great but the process of working through Maliheh Clinic probably delayed the Polizzi results by at least 24 hours. Now patients should be receiving their results the same day."
"This is a big deal for patients," says Nathan. "It can be tedious to have to wait for lab results that are contingent on a job offer. We know getting them sooner could mean a faster road to self-sufficiency."