Impact of rising uninsured rates on San Francisco Free Clinic services

¶ … Uninsured on San Francisco

Development of Community Health Support Services

San Francisco has one of the most extensive and successful health support systems for uninsured individuals in any major metropolitan area in the United Stats, and though budgetary concerns are a constant issue for this system and its constituent organizations the increasing numbers of uninsured individuals will likely not cause a major burden to these organizations in the near future (SFFC 2010; SFHP 2010; USCB 1998). Support services will almost certainly develop at a slower rate than during times of economic surplus and overall abundance, and service provision and program development alike will both focus more on general care provision rather than more intensive and long-term preventative care and education campaigns (SFHP 2010; SPUR 2010). These will be the major impacts on health service and support development programs of increasing uninsured citizens in San Francisco.

Communication with Stakeholders

Due to the longstanding nature of the principles, infrastructure, and organizations involved in the provision of health services and support to uninsured and underinsured individuals in San Francisco, it is not expected that increases in the number of uninsured and underinsured citizens in the city will have a major impact on communications abilities (SFFC 2010; SFHP 2010). Government officials and community leaders have well-established communications channels and links and historic events have already shown a large measure of flexibility in communications capacities for these systems (USCB 1998; OLSE 2010).

Future Risks

This does not mean that a continued rise in the number of uninsured and underinsured individuals in San Francisco would not have an adverse effect on the San Francisco Free Clinic's operational ability, however. Obviously, the greater the number of people serviced by the organization with the same level of resources means a lower level of resources to be devoted to each individual patient and/or procedure. As the City of San Francisco is facing greater financial burdens for a variety of reasons in the current era, it seems unlikely that increased funding will be made readily available in a way that will truly serve the needs of the clinic and the community and absorb additional potential losses (SPUR 2010).

Initiatives

Two initiatives that could potentially serve to build the organizations strength and enable it to meet these risks are an increased marketing of preventative services offered as a means of creating lower-resources means of addressing community health issues, and implementing internal cost-saving measures that focus on reducing waste and improving efficiency especially in the use of material resources. Supplies and materials comprise a large portion of the spending budget for the San Francisco Free Clinic as well as for other similar organizations, and reducing these costs could provide a major asset and improvement of the financial strength of the organization (SFFC 2010; SFHP 2010). Preventative health measures are also often much cheaper and less time consuming, and provide greater overall economic advantages through reducing losses in productivity due to illness (OLSE 2010).

Assessment

Based on certain specific criteria of the San Francisco Free Clinic, it seems highly likely that these changes will b easily made and lead to positive changes for the organization. The clinic has shown a great deal of flexibility and ability to change in the past, and the leadership and management of the clinic are highly dedicated to providing the highest quality medical services to as many patents as possible, making these changes highly necessary (SFFC 2010). Few barriers to organizational effectiveness exist with full community and government support (SFHP 2010).