Cobb senior clinic collaboration ideal, held up by funding problems
Cobb County is working to patch holes in the health care safety net by partnering with a local medical system to open a clinic for the county’s aging residents.
The clinic, a partnership, between the county and WellStar Health System would provide a central health care location to serve county residents between the ages of 55 and 65 who don't have health insurance and are too young to qualify for Medicare.
Officials from both sides have worked on the proposal for months with plans to open the clinic in the county’s senior services facility in the renovated shopping center, now county services building, along Powder Springs Street.
The clinic -- along with a fitness studio, cafe and senior day care program to be housed in the building -- is part of the county's holistic approach of serving its seniors in one location. Officials are hoping the ongoing and preventative care at the clinic will reduce chronic conditions that can occur in seniors without regular health care.
“In the county things are fragmented. There is a poor safety net in these [communities with unmet health needs] and the current rising demand dictated that we do something different,” said Allen Hoffman, executive director for community health with WellStar.
Hoffman, a longtime physician, retired in 2008, and came out of retirement six months later to work on community projects like the Cobb clinic.
About 117,000 people, or 17.6 percent, of Cobb’s population in 2005 (taken from mid-decade Census figures) was made up of older adults, age 55 and up, according to a 2006 University of Georgia survey of the age group in the metro Atlanta area. In Cobb, this age group will have a projected growth rate of 85 percent between the years 2000 and 2030.
“I see these collaborations as the only way to make things work,” said Pam Breeden, Cobb’s senior services director. “The volume of patients has gotten to the point were emergency room numbers are off the charts, and with people using them as their main health care option, there is no continuity of care with doctors to maybe spot things that are more serious.”
With help from the Cobb and Douglas Public Health, WellStar would provide nurse practitioners to administer a range of tests including bone density, vision and hearing screenings, as well as nutrition education.
The collaboration between the county and Wellstar for the clinic is essential in helping achieve the goals of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Lifelong Communities Program, said Laura Keyes, Community Development manager for ARC’s Aging Services Division.
The Lifelong Communities program is aimed at transforming communities into areas where residents, including seniors, can live their entire lives with a full range of services including transportation and health care options. About 65 percent of Cobb’s seniors plan to live in their current house as long as they live, the UGA survey found.
For the clinic project, the ARC helped in providing demographic and economic data about Cobb’s seniors, specifically about areas where the poorest of the age group reside.
The clinic may be essential, but it too has been hurt by the economy. Funding problems have delayed the senior center’s opening and stalled the clinic’s debut. Part of the opening hinges on the county’s plan to consolidate some of its senior facilities at the new location, sell the old buildings and the money for other projects in the department, but the recession has left the buildings without buyers.
“We had hoped to be in the [Powder Springs Street] building by this winter, but we are not near that,” Breeden said. “We’ve had to find other funding sources.”
Breeden’s department has launched a $500,000 fundraising campaign and is selling naming rights for rooms inside the new center. A portion of the funding is also included in the proposed six-year SPLOST that goes before voters in March.
Depending on the funding, Breeden is hoping to have the clinic open in early 2012.
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