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"Just seeing the look on her face when she described the pain
she felt, made me realize how much I needed to help her find a specialist
who could deal with her problem." Ms. Rodriguez referred Ms.
Carter to dermatologist George A. Wooming, MD, and the payoff was
almost immediate.
"After she had been to her first appointment, she called me,"
Ms. Rodriguez says. "She was so excited that after just one
visit with Dr. Wooming, she was not in pain for the first time in
20 years." It’s success stories like these that make
Ms. Rodriguez’s job so satisfying. Before joining Project
Access, Ms. Rodriguez worked as a lay health promoter in the community
and translated for the Community Health Clinic at Central Dallas
Ministries. Sometimes she took people without transportation to
their medical appointments.
In February, Ms. Rodriguez started six weeks of training for Project
Access. Now she attends in-service training, health conferences
about various health issues, as part of keeping her skills continually
updated. To fulfill one requirement for her position, Ms. Rodriguez
passed the test for her GED. She’s now thinking about going
to college. According to Connie Howe, care coordination manager
for Project Access, the goal is for community health workers like
Ms. Rodriguez to become "community know-it-alls" in neighborhoods
throughout Dallas County.
"They follow the case management model," Howe says. "But
they go beyond it in terms of personal interaction."
She says that Project Access is critical to providing specialty
care to the uninsured. Most community health clinics, like the CDM
clinic in East Dallas, are low-cost, bare-bones operations that
have no specialists beyond a once-a-month gynecology clinic. The
need for specialists is where healthcare access often falls short,
especially for people like Barbara Carter, who haven’t been
managing their chronic conditions very well.
And that’s where Helen Rodriguez comes in. Not only does she
help enroll patients in the program, she sets up a home visit and
walks patients through the healthcare maze—navigating appointments
with specialists, hospital admitting procedures, if necessary, and
follow-up. She ensures patients understand what medications they
need, where to get them, and how often to take them. Ms. Rodriquez
makes the process less intimidating, helps patients overcome barriers
to care such as translation or transportation, and perhaps, most
importantly, leads patients to social services that help them acquire
government assistance or bona fide health insurance.
By focusing on clients such as Barbara Carter, Project Access hopes
to contribute to managing the cost of health care. "Normally,
people like Barbara use the emergency room for primary care and
for flare-ups," according to Ms. Howe, "and this drives
up healthcare costs." In addition to coordinating primary care
and helping manage chronic illnesses, Project Access educates clients
about prevention. Ms. Rodriguez loves being on the front lines of
care management. "I feel good knowing that something that might
seem like so little means so much to these patients," she says.
"I love this job and feel like the work is important."
For Ms. Rodriguez, the work she does is a constant education, with
a family feel. "I’m learning from the best here,"
she says. "I’m happy to be here, because it’s a
team effort. We have a great team."
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