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Community Impact

Improved Quality of Care Offered to Uninsured Austinites

As health care reform continues to make it to the top of the list of relevant topics in the nation, the Wallace Mallory Clinic continues to take steps toward improving the quality of care to Austin's uninsured children and families, transitioning from a volunteer-physician to a resident physician-based model of service clinic.

"With support from the Travis County Health Care District, St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities, St. David's Community Health Foundation and The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the Wallace Mallory Clinic's resident physician-based model of service will allow us to better meet the challenges and needs of our patients," said Al Perez, director of health services.

According to the Community Action Network, 55 percent of all local emergency room visits in 2008 were for diagnoses which were considered potentially preventable or primary-care treatable. The challenges are, 25 percent of the citizens in Travis County live without health insurance and there is a six-to-eight-month, non-emergency-care wait at Travis County clinics.

"As El Buen's Wallace Mallory Clinic transitions to a resident physician-based model of service clinic, uninsured children and families who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid support will be referred to El Buen's clinic from other service providers who are not well-suited to offer health care services to the uninsured," Perez said.

In 2008, El Buen's Wallace Mallory Clinic served as the medical home for 4,223 patients with no preventive and primary care. For information on how to support or volunteer for the Wallace Mallory Clinic, contact Al Perez at (512) 439-0720 or aperez@elbuen.org.