By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
“I’m here with Mickey to pick up his prescription,” said nurse practitioner Beryl Sowah. “I just want to make sure his insurance approved it.”
This is a common scene at a downtown Plainfield pharmacy. Mickey Overton’s nurse practitioner escorts him to pick up his medicine and sift through any bureaucratic issues it may come with. He’s a patient with the Plainfield Health Connections.
“Plainfield Health Connections is a community outreach program started by JFK Health System to connect uninsured and under-insured residents in the greater Plainfield area to health and social service needs to better improve their health,” said Sowah.
“They’ve been very helpful because a lot of things I wouldn’t have thought to do. A lot of things I probably wouldn’t have followed up on my own,” said Overton.
The program is hands-on. Patients get paired with a nurse and a social worker. They perform a needs assessment before the patient is discharged from the ER.
“A lot of our patients are uninsured, undocumented and they don’t know where to go for primary care services, so they use the emergency room for primary care,” Sowah said.
“Serving a patient in the emergency room is the most expensive care setting available,” said VP of Government Affairs for JFK Health System, Adam Beder. “So what we have been able to successfully do is teach people how to access the health care system in the community.”
In Overton’s case, he needed help finding housing. His social worker used to meet him here at the YMCA where he rented a room. They’ll also provide transportation, sit in on doctors appointments, help with applying for food stamps or writing a resume.
“Patients fall through the cracks. There’s a large gap between leaving the hospital, and getting to a doctor’s office. They don’t know what to do. We’re the bridge for that gap,” said Sowah.
“A lot of people won’t reach out because they don’t know how. They sort of give you that encouragement,” said Overton.
In just over one year the program has enrolled more than a hundred people. So far, the results seem to be working. Patients say they’re getting better care and the hospital has seen a 67 percent reduction in their ER visits.”
“A lot of patients have been so bitten by the system that they’ve lost trust in the system. We see confidence building up. We see people taking more charge of their health because they see that there’s access. They’re able to access the resources, so we see a big change in people’s attitudes,” said Sowah.
Plainfield Health Connection is exploring the possibility of doubling their capacity, which will be housed in this new emergency room. The goal is complete self-management, one patient at a time.