Churchill Community Hospital, Inc.

Project Overview

Churchill Community Hospital, Inc. established the Patients In Need project in 2018 to make direct grants available to Banner Churchill Community Hospital patients in need of assistance that is not otherwise available in Churchill County, Nevada.   The project focuses on financially and socially vulnerable individuals in need after a hospitalization. The goal is meeting the immediate needs of patients at discharge, as identified by a licensed social worker at Banner Churchill Community Hospital. The project focus is on improving access to healthcare through direct financial support for transportation, medication, and other medical needs. Nevada residents that have been assisted by the program live in Churchill, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, and Pershing counties.   All the counties named have a moderate to high designation in the Center for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index.

With the Patients in Need project, individuals have access to affordable transportation to discharge home from the hospital, follow-up care, visit family members in medical care outside the community, and the means to afford to travel to additional appointments with specialists in Reno/ Carson City and out of state. Transportation barriers can result in missed healthcare appointments, limited pharmacy access, decrease medication refills, and create an economic burden for patients and the healthcare system. Seventy percent (70%) of patients in the project received aid for transportation.

The Project provides Churchill Area Regional Transportation (CART) vouchers for those who are under 60 who are travelling within Churchill County. Cart vouchers are not provided to the over 60 age group as they are not required to pay in the CART system.

Fuel cards are provided for the patients use to return home at discharge and/or travel to medical appointments both locally and Reno/Carson City. Cards may be used by the patient themselves or used to reimburse the fuel costs for someone else driving them to the appointment, or to visit a family member who is in medical care in another area.

Patients may not have the funds to purchase medications or cover the co-pay. If they do purchase the medication, that may impair their ability to meet other needs or pay household bills. Research conducted by the partnership of West Health and Gallup indicate the severity of medication insecurity nationwide. Risk factors for severity of COVID illness include several chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure that are customarily managed by medication.

An estimated 18% of households in Churchill County earned less than $25000 in 2019. In a nationwide poll by Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health poll, 94% of patients with incomes under $25000 a year stated they did not fill or pick up their prescriptions due to expenses involved.   From the study, potentially 1,780 households of the estimated 9,940 households in Churchill County would not fill or pick up prescriptions. These numbers are only for Churchill County and do not include patients from other areas that utilize Banner Churchill Community Hospital.

Circumstances related to need are evaluated individually. The purchase of shoes, clothing and durable medical equipment purchases have also been supported by the Patients in Need Project.