Free Clinics

A patient advocate works closely with doctors to thoroughly understand their patient’s condition in order to advocate effectively. A patient advocate initiates necessary follow ups. A patient advocate ensures their patient fully understands treatment plans. A patient advocate educates their patient about their situation and aids them to make informed decisions about their care. For a patient with adequate medical care this advocacy guarantees quality care and a smooth recovery. What about a patient who does not have medical care available to them?

Founded in 1993, the CommunityHealth Clinic has served more than 1.8 million Illinois residents are without adequate health coverage and 1.3 million of those live in the Chicago metro area. Like the vast majority of the uninsured, most of Community Health’s patients are from working families.  CommunityHealth has become a leader among other Chicago land free clinics and even clinics nationwide. They offer comprehensive medical care to the uninsured with more than 750 volunteers including a staff of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists, and pharmacists.

In addition, CommunityHealth offers free primary and specialty care, preventive health screenings, vaccinations, diagnostic testing and services, case management and educational programs on-site to all their patients. Their specialty care program now offer programs such as audiology, cardiology, dermatology, nephrology, counseling/social work, and much more.

CommunityHealth believe that they must act as the voice of the uninsured in general as well as the patients they provide care to. Thus, raising awareness for the uninsured, educating communities in Chicago about the services offered at CHC, and influencing public policy are considered top priority for Community Health.

In numerous ways CommunityHealth along with numerous other free clinics are active advocates for the uninsured – the most vulnerable type of patients.

Advocacy in the Community

Where does patient advocacy take place? Where should it take place? The health care field is increasing as new physicians, nurses, surgeons, and medical students enter it all determined to ensure the safety of their patients; to heal their patients. But in reality this healing takes place in the community before it can continue at a hospital.

Community initiated and community based, The Center for Ethics and Advocacy in Healthcare is a nonprofit organization that supports the north suburban families in Chicago. Since 1988, The Center has been answering, and responding to family crisis, helping families make wise decisions for their healthcare, teaching the community how to make effective decisions, working to change public policies in our healthcare systems, and much more.

The Center believes that advocacy starts when a patient is respected and appreciated for being unique. They refer to each patient’s uniqueness as human dignity. Knowing that human dignity is comprised of a body, a mind, and a spirit, The Center places invaluable integrity on a patient regardless of their physical capacity. However, human dignity can be compromised by lack of autonomy, the ability to make self-decisions regarding your healthcare. Thus, The Center strives to preserve patient dignity and their quality of life teaching their community to value their mission: “when we are weak, then we are strong.”

M. Margaret McDonnell, Founder/Director of The Center, offers one-on-one help to numerous families living around The Center who may not know where to turn with their questions. Ms. McDonnell aids families make decisions with respect to surgery, treatment options, and more. She reaches out to her community by visiting homes, hospitals, and nursing homes providing comfort to various patients and their families. Her work takes place on the streets of Techny, IL and addresses such questions as: “How can we live and die as whole human beings? How can suffering and death be integrated into the full spectrum of human life? How do love and justice intersect in a world of scarcity?”  

Finally, she trusts that the presence and the advocacy of The Center can help foster human dignity in each patient and family in the ever expanding healthcare system.

Patients and Advocates Get Involved

According to Duane Roth, author of “A Third Seat at the Table: An Insider’s Perspective on Patient Representatives”, our nation is taking a fresh look at “medical care, advances in the health sciences—from genetic sequencing to stem cell technology—“ and taking new opportunities “to make health care better, faster, and more cost-effective.” However before this can occur, we must reconsider our current strategies on health care innovation; specifically the area of regulating new products. At this point federal agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration, together with product development companies discuss and negotiate the regulatory approval process of new products.

Patients, as well as their families, are immensely affected by these approval processes. Roth states that “their [patients] lives and their quality of life hang in the balance.” Thus patients stand in a unique position because they are able to evaluate both the risks and benefits of existing and upcoming medical products. And so, Roth believes that the time has come to involve patients in the regulatory approval processes. Patients will serve as “mediators” and assist regulators and companies discover new ways for “fostering innovation, building public trust, cutting costs, and addressing quality-of-life issues.”

Patient representatives became prominent in the late 90’s as the AIDS epidemic surfaced. In the 1990’s the FDA summoned patient representatives to serve on advisory committees that assessed products made for life-threatening illnesses. Although patient representatives were consulted to partake in committees, Roth writes that they made up less than 10 percent of the committee. Even today they face struggles as they attempt to influence “product decisions.”

Roth predicts that if patient representatives actively participate in the discussions and negotiations for the regulatory approval processes as mediators, they will serve as catalysts “for making real progress on urgently needed products.” This is the right time to include patient representatives/mediators into the approval processes. This is the right time to improve “costs, payoffs in the therapeutic efficacy, procedural efficiency, and public confidence.” This is the right time to add a third seat to the table.