Dr. Louis Sullivan Former US Secretary of Health and Human Service S and Founding Dean

Dr. Louis Sullivan Former US Secretary of Health and Human Service s and Founding Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine

“One Patient at a Time” Triad Business Journal, April 30, 2007

In Greensboro, HealthServe Community Health Clinic has filled a vital gap in the community since its founding in 1990 - providing primary health care to a growing number of adult patients who are indigent, uninsured or underinsured.

HealthServe, funded primarily by the Moses Cone Health System and Guilford County, has grown from a small clinic and mostly volunteer staff to two clinic locations, a full-time staff of 40 (including four doctors) and a budget of $3.8 million.

Every penny and more is needed given a patient base of 12,000 people, which grows by some 200 new patients a month. Most HealthServe patients actually have jobs --jobs with little or no health insurance.

To cover the costs of this care, Bill Porter, Moses Cone's new vice president for Fund Development, organized a well-attended business leadership luncheon in downtown Greensboro this week. The keynote speaker was Dr. Louis Sullivan, secretary of Health and Human Services under the first President Bush.

Porter's appeal, echoed by Cone CEO Tim Rice, is direct and accessible: $500 will enable a donor to sponsor one HealthServe patient and cover medical costs for a year. AIG/United Guaranty and VF Corp. have pledged to match donations up to $50,000.

"This is something that everyone can do to help out," says Porter, who is eager to establish broad-based community support for HealthServe. "We can do this one patient at a time. In fact, if two people wanted to split the donation to sponsor a patient, that would work, too." Porter stressed that the goal of increasing community donations is not about enabling Moses Cone to reduce its annual support, but rather to cover the growing costs from an ever- expanding patient base.