This paper describes a fictional healthcare organization that provides healthcare for the homeless, called ôHomelessCare.ö This organization would exist to meet the medical needs of the homeless without compromising their care because of their inability to pay. HomelessCare would serve the homeless throughout the United States, providing all forms of necessary healthcare. The care would be funded by the existing Medicaid program and augmented by additional government funding set aside for the homeless.
The HomelessCare organization would address and remedy many of the inadequacies of the traditional healthcare community with regard to meeting the needs of the homeless. First, it would be dedicated exclusively to the homeless. Second, it would ensure that the homeless are not given short shrift due to their financial status, as so often happens with Medicaid patients. Third, it would form alliances with other organizations that minister to the homeless, to provide a network of services that establishes the homeless person as a ôcustomerö that can be helped by all of them.
The vision of HomelessCare is to provide comprehensive, high-quality healthcare to the homeless in an atmosphere of respect and compassion. Its mission is to develop innovative ways to improve the access, delivery, and quality of healthcare; to partner with other service providers to the homeless to ensure full-coverage homeless assistance; and to seek to continuously improve the quality of its health care services and programs.
The expectations of the typical homeless patient tend to be much lower than those of the non-homeless patient, as a result of the homeless patientÆs limited financial resources and inurement to hardship. However, the patientÆs needs are likely to be much greater, due to the deleterious effects of homelessnessùexposure, poor nutrition, minimal rest, and vulnerability to criminal attack. HomelessCare will provide cust...