YAY, FOR US... according to Keitht

[nadinbrzezinski]

the national association of free clinics now has enough for ONE of them and perhaps two...

Now they are focusing on NOLA and Little Rock.

[thunder rising]

1. Wow, with $575K I guess those events aren't cheap. I'm really glad they do it at all!

[Horse with no Name]

4. Well healthcare is NOT cheap

but that seems a very efficient number.
The lady that is in charge of this was on last week and they get $5 services out of each $1 they spend.
The larger cost of that is the venue--which they are trying to get donated.
At the last free event they had in Houston--1200 people received healthcare.
If they are able to get 2 clinics out of this money--that equals about $239 per patient. Very efficient.
My annual physical costs more than that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Yes, that is very efficient.

Hell even if they went to 250 per patient that would be very efficient.

Oh and the venue includes the insurance that goes with it, and health care... it goes through the sky.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. No they are not

I used to work as a volunteer medic in TJ, and since I bought a lot of my equipment, trust me, I know how expensive this can be.

You need some diagnostic equipment... things like stethoscopes clinicians will bring, but even a decent PB cuff, not a good one, just a decent one, can run easily into 25 bucks.

Then there are things like gauze... 25 years ago a package of 100 of 5x5 ran 10 bucks...

And that is the barebones cheap things. We are not even talking of meds, lab testing and equipment and all that.

One day we were bored, after we took a code trauma to the trauma bay. So we calculated the cost of taking care of that patient in the field, partly as an exercise for the young EMTs to realize money ain't gonna grow on trees. Between gas, mechanical use of the ambulance, medical gear and things like disposables, syringes, breathing tube, oxygen, other meds, IVs and all that... it came to 3500, 15 years ago, and with a volunteer crew. You added personnel cost as in training, add another five hundred... if we were paid, another 300...

They extend it the way we used to... with plenty of volunteers... that alone is a major part of the cost. So if any of those comes to your town think about volunteering, even if you are not medically certified. There is plenty of busy work that can be done even by non certified people, like keeping all the damn paperwork together, and as much as I hate it... cleanup between patients.

[pdxmom]

2. Did I understand correctly that it would go further if they could get

donated space? In other words, if space is donated, they would be able to fund more? Or is it that this is the amount they need plus they also need donated space?

[PDJane]

3. You heard correctly........

space large enough and volunteers are the problem.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. You heard right, if they get an arena donated

that will allow them to spread that money even further.