Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell

Dr. Jeffrey Baxter and his assistant, Susan St. Onge, treat a patient at La Clinica del Valle's dental clinic in Phoenix. La Clinica's dental program will benefit from a $765,000 federal grant that will expand health care opportunities for low-income people in Jackson and Josephine counties.

By BILL KETTLER

A $765,000 federal grant will boost one of Jackson County's most creative health-care programs and provide the funds to replicate its structure in Josephine County.

Since 1995, Jackson County doctors, hospitals and clinics have provided free medical care to low-income patients under a program called VolPACT (Voluntary Patient Access to Consultation and Treatment). The grant will allow VolPACT to expand into general-practice family medicine, and it will fund nearly a dozen new initiatives that will give low-income families better access to health care.

"We're really excited," said Peg Crowley, director of the Jackson County Community Health Center, which submitted the grant proposal. "VolPACT has been a tremendous service to the community. We wanted to replicate it in Josephine County because it's been so successful in Jackson County."

The grant is part of a $25 million national health initiative known as the Community Access Program. Congress appropriated the money to support programs that bring health care to people who are uninsured or underinsured. Crowley said the federal grant evaluators were impressed by Jackson and Josephine counties' long history of agencies working together to meet community needs.

"The diversity of the components that we put into the grant really impressed the feds," Crowley said.

The Community Heath Center developed the grant in cooperation with the Health Care Coalition of Southern Oregon, which includes La Clinica del Valle, Siskiyou Community Health Center, Open Door Clinic, and the public health departments of Jackson, Josephine and Douglas counties as well as the Jackson County Community Health Center.

Some of the grant projects will provide specific kinds of health care: a Jackson County dental-health program for pregnant women and infants received $100,000; and VolPACT received $25,000 to provide general medical care to low-income families. But a large portion of the grant will fund projects designed to help people find health insurance or qualify for existing assistance programs. It includes, for example, $178,000 to hire four outreach workers who will help people apply for the Oregon Health Plan and other state and federal assistance.

"We tried to think about what we could do to improve the (health-care delivery) infrastructure," Crowley said. "We looked for things that we could do that would continue to improve health care if the (grant) money went away."

The grant also includes $58,000 to create a single "point of contact" (a toll-free telephone number) that will provide information for people who lack medical insurance and don't know how to find help.

"It's kind of frustrating for people now," said Debra McFadden, director of the Jackson County Medical Society, which manages VolPACT. "They often call the wrong place or get sent to seven different places before they get the help they need."

McFadden said the toll-free number won't be up and running until the grant money is dispersed, probably sometime after July 1.

VolPACT first surfaced as the brainchild of Medford cardiologist John Forsyth as a way to provide major medical care for poor people. Physicians had donated medical services previously, but there was a tendency for them to burn out. Forsyth asked physicians to contribute a specific, limited number of hours to treat people who had no insurance or couldn't afford medical care.

"He created a smorgasbord of opportunities for people to volunteer," Crowley said.

Jackson County's three hospitals agreed to provide financial support. By 2001, 181 Jackson County physicians were participating in the program. The combined value of all contributed services from physicians and hospitals amounted to $2.1 million by the end of 2000.

Community health clinics play a critical role in the VolPACT structure because they serve patients who lack the resources to pay for health care. The clinics screen patients to determine whether they qualify for the Oregon Health Plan or other kind of insurance or assistance, and refer those who don't to VolPACT.

The screening process makes physicians feel good about contributing their time, Crowley said, "because they really feel like they're serving the people who were falling through the cracks."