SACRAMENTO: The ‘SPIRIT’ of Medicine is Alive and Well
The Sacramento Bee profiles the Capital Health Center, which provides care to indigent patients in Sacramento County. Some 42 doctors volunteer at the clinic under a four-year-old program called SPIRIT (Sacramento Physicians' Initiative to Reach Out, Innovate and Teach) -- a joint effort of the Sacramento-El Dorado Medical Society, four area hospitals and the county. To date it has provided $1.5 million in free health care, "a boost to a county program that almost annually is threatened with devastating budget cuts." And significantly, "what began as a program to boost primary care services has evolved to included specialties such as plastic, orthopedic and general surgery, dermatology, ophthalmology, cardiology, endocrinology, gynecology and rheumatology" (Griffith, 8/20).
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