Munson unveils health care tool

By Tom Polansek - Elgin Courier

ELGIN - For thousands of uninsured or underinsured local residents, a rash or stomach ache may mean a trip to the emergency room and hours waiting to be seen by a doctor.

Without primary care physicians, many think hospitals are the only place they can go for treatment.

But state Rep. Ruth Munson, R-Elgin, on Monday unveiled an information sheet she hopes will help teach the uninsured and underinsured about services for routine medical problems that are available from local federally-funded clinics. Moving uninsured patients with minor ailments from emergency rooms to the clinics, Munson said, will get them treatment more quickly and decrease wait times for insured emergency room visitors who genuinely need immediate care.

"Emergency rooms are not the best place for routine or preventative care," Munson said in a news conference at the Greater Elgin Family Care Center.
"They are designed for emergencies and are not equipped for providing other types of care options.

"Our research showed that many people using the emergency room for primary care did not know they had options. Now they will."

The paper information sheet, which took more than a year to design and produce, is presented in English and Spanish. It also features illustrations for those who may speak another language or be illiterate.

The page includes maps to five local health centers and details the services offered at each location. The centers listed are the Greater Elgin Family Care Center, 370 Summit St.; Kane County Health Department's Pregnant Women Clinic, 113 S. Grove St. in Elgin; Aunt Martha's Carpentersville Community Health Center, 3003 Wakefield Drive; and Aunt Martha's North Clinic, 1646 Ravine Lane in Carpentersville.

Among the services offered at the offices are prenatal care, immunizations and treatment for ear infections, minor abdominal pain, skin rashes and minor burns. The sheet touts the treatment from the clinics as "bueno, rapido, barato," or high quality, fast and affordable.

"Health centers are America's premier health care provider serving the working poor, the uninsured, low-income elderly and the medically underserved," said Robert Tanner, head of the Greater Elgin Family Care Center. "In Illinois, community health centers make a difference every day."

Munson said the information sheets will be distributed immediately in local churches and, starting next year, to students in Elgin School District U46 and Community Unit School District 300.

The tool may also bring down health care costs for the insured. Officials said Kane County hospitals lose about $40 million a year treating uninsured patients.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, highlighted that point in a statement praising the information sheet. He was scheduled to attend the news conference but had to stay in Washington, D.C., for other business, his spokesman said.

"Ultimately, this initiative will improve access to high-quality health care for all residents, and reduce the number of unnecessary and expensive emergency room trips that drive up health care costs for the entire community," Hastert said.

The sheet was designed by Sylvia Acevedo, president of Texas-based CommuniCard LLC. Acevedo has previously created information cards to help Spanish-speaking domestic workers communicate with their English-speaking employers.

Munson said the total project cost, including printing and Acevedo's fee, was $17,000 so far. It was paid for by donations from Sherman Hospital, Provena St. Joseph Hospital and the Kane County Health Department, she said.