Lexington, KY - Under normal economic conditions, many Kentuckians struggle to meet the costs of medical care. Many have no insurance to cover costly procedures and as a result become sicker and even less capable of holding a regular job to pay those bills - - a cycle that often spirals downward. And in today's economy, with jobs evaporating and companies struggling to manage continuing increases in the costs of employee health insurance, there is even greater demand for a medical safety net, particularly for those in need of surgery but unable to afford care. Business Lexington's Tom Martin spoke with Dr. Andrew Moore, a Lexington Plastic Surgeon and founder of "Surgery on Sunday," an innovative concept seeded with a $150,000 contribution from St. Joseph Hospital/Catholic Health Initiatives that has recruited nearly 400 medical workers in Central Kentucky to donate their services and provide free medical care to those who otherwise would have to go without.
What motivated you to start Surgery on Sunday?
Early in my career, I noticed that there was this problem with people that were self-insured; that is they didn't have any health insurance, so they were going to have to pay out of pocket. When I first started, they were easy to identify, it was easy to get the hospitals to take care of those people at no cost. As we all went to computers and as HMO's came into the market, it became more difficult for me to do that. So I started thinking about it seriously about 10 or 15 years ago. I made a couple attempts at trying to get it off the ground, but just didn't have the skills or the know-how to make it happen. And it's something that's never been done anywhere else in the United States at this point. I was on a board for the Mobile Clinic and we were talking about problems we were having getting surgery done from that segment of the population. So I tossed out my idea at that board meeting and there happened to be a grant writer there that said 'well, I can get you some money and make that happen.' And that is sort of where the process started.
Did this program originate in Lexington?
Yes. There is no other program like this in the country. That's why we are trying to develop a template so we can share this with other communities and they can develop their own program to do it.
Do you rely on volunteer physicians and medical staff?
Yes, it's not just physicians. I mean, a third of our population is Hispanic so it's important to have interpreters involved. We have social workers. We need people to clean the rooms and clean the instruments, get people to and from the facility. So it's a huge volunteer population, not just physicians and nurses but other ancillary personnel as well.
How many medical facilities are involved?
At the present time our affiliates are the Lexington Surgery Center. There are plans, because of the need, to grow this program to involve the other hospitals. We have verbal agreements and are working through that right now with the University of Kentucky, Central Baptist Hospital and St. Joseph to add an additional Sunday a month to try to help out with the increased need we are seeing.
In this economy, what are you experiencing?
Across the country, there are 53 million people that fall under this category. These are people who work but just can't afford the health insurance. In this state there are over 800,000, and again, there's been a significant decrease in employer's ability to afford health insurance for their employees, as well as an increase in our unemployment. So we're seeing a very rapid increase in people coming and asking us for our help, and that's why we have made this decision to expand the program.
This seems to be a way to restore productivity.
Yeah. It's sort of a win-win. Just to give you an example: early in our beginnings we saw a patient from Western Kentucky who was a concrete worker, 45 years of age who was gainfully employed, worked hard, had an injury of his knee and was no longer able to do that. He sought help from the state to see if he could get the surgery done on his knee but was going to have to go on disability for two years before he was going to be able to get that insurance. This is a fellow who wanted to work, had worked all his life. So we were able to simply do a knee scope on this person, get him back to where he was actively employed. You know, he feels good about himself - - he's not going to be drawing unemployment for the rest of his life and he's a productive citizen and paying taxes.
You mentioned a Western Kentuckian as an example, so I take it this is not limited just to this geographic area here in Central Kentucky.
When we first started this, our idea was to do just Central Kentucky. But it's really hard to turn somebody down from outside that area. To this point we've taken care of people from 120 of the counties of Kentucky. We've taken care of people from Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois and we've had three international people that we've also taken care of. Two kids from Guatemala and a lady from Iraq. Our mission really is for the people of Kentucky and Central Kentucky, but we occasionally will take care of people in other situations.
How does this work?
Basically, we have gone out to all the centers in our community and Central Kentucky that typically see this population. They know about us and they refer us patients. So a large portion of our population comes from those referrals. Patients can also self-refer, if they feel like they have the need, and we'll evaluate them and make sure that they meet our criteria and then we send them to the appropriate places. But most of them are coming from the health department, baby health, the mobile clinic, Salvation Army. All these places, the Hope Center, that are already in our community and seeing this population and referring these patients to us.
How can someone get in touch with Surgery on Sunday?
They can either contact me or (Director) Larry Collins of SOS and then we would get them into the process. Or they can go through one of these organizations and they'll get them in touch with us.
Surgery on Sunday Director Larry Collins can be reached at 859-246-0046. The organization's Web site is www.surgeryonsunday.org.