Access Oc Southern California

Programs: Access oc is the only organization in southern california providing volunteer specialty surgical care for people in need. The outpatient surgery program coordinates the services of donated medical facilities and all of the volunteer medical professionals including surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and hospital staff. We screen, medically qualify and educate patients so physicians can efficiently treat in-need patients. Through our comprehensive care coordination, we facilitate transportation, pre- and post-surgery care and provide culturally competent care and referral to supportive community-based organizations to ensure the patients' return to health. During this past year, access oc expanded the number of care partners, further improving access to care and successfully applied for and received blue ribbon certification for volunteer service enterprise recognition. We also strengthened the role of the clinic coordinators and refined our care coordination model, in order to provide more effective and efficient intervention and support to our patients and their families. In addition to the surgery days, additional patients have been provided free eye surgeries through the integrated care model. For patients unable to undergo needed surgery because they also suffer from complicating co-morbidities, such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure, we provided education, health resources and coordinated next steps to help patients manage their conditions and improve their health sufficiently to obtain surgical care. Access oc has continued to be very successful in meeting our program objectives. We are pleased to report that 400 patients were referred to our outpatient surgery program and 100 percent of referred patients received comprehensive care coordination health navigation and follow-up evaluation services. The care coordination services we delivered involved, on average, 10-12 patient encounters for every surgery and/or colonoscopy procedure we helped secure; plus 4-6 encounters for referred patients who may not have ultimately received a surgical procedure, but did receive health resources and assistance in navigating the health. These interactions amount to over 3,000 patient encounters this year.