Buncombe County Project Access

The Buncombe County Health Center is the primary provider of indigent medical care in the community, with over 15,000 active clients. Before Project Access, the Department spent an inordinate amount of time trying to locate specialists to take indigent referrals, and specialty care needs were often going unresolved. Project Access, a partnership between county government, county physicians, county service agencies, the hospital, and pharmacists, provides specialty care referrals and spreads the indigent care burden across the entire medical community so that no single specialist is ever required to see more than 20 clients. That represents less than 1% of the average practice and that burden is happily borne by local physicians.

The goal of Project Access is to improve access to specialty health care in Buncombe County.

Through Project Access 90% of practicing physicians in Buncombe County (over 600) now see 10-20 individuals referred into their program with no expectation of payment. The County provides seed money, the Medical Society runs the program, and the hospital absorbs patient costs. Access to primary care services has been raised from 78% in 1995 to an astounding 93% in the year 2000.