The University of Scranton’s Edward R. Leahy Jr. Center Clinic for the Uninsured earned a 2020 Gold Rating from the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC) Quality Standards Program.
As a member of NAFC, the Leahy Clinic is required to quantify and qualify the care provided utilizing a formalized set of quality standards set forth by this national association. Voluntary submission of information to the NAFC on the various policies and procedures is required to attain their standards rating along with validation that they are successfully incorporated within the organization. NAFC quality standards elements included policies and procedures related to the following areas: administrative, enhanced access and continuity of care, identifying and managing patient population information, planning and managing care, providing self-care support and community resources, tracking and coordinating care and measuring and improving performance.
Procedures documented by the Leahy Clinic, Lackawanna County’s only free clinic, include reports of the diversity in its racial, ethnic and language composition within the patient population. Language services and multi-lingual staff of the clinic interpret for the patient utilizing culturally specific dialects that decrease the possibility for misdiagnosis due to lack of understanding in both directions of interpretation. The Leahy Clinic has also established relationships with medical and diagnostic specialists with the goal of improving overall health and decreasing inappropriate Emergency Department utilization due to lack of accessible care, by implementing a patient navigation system.
“We have been members of NAFC for the past 10 years, and along with University of Scranton students, have been able to develop resources and provide patient care based on best practices for delivery of outpatient care,” said Andrea Mantione, D.N.P., director of the University’s Leahy Community Health and Family Center, which includes the Leahy Clinic. Both Dr. Mantione and Maria Vital, Ph.D., operations manager at the Leahy Community Health and Family Center, have been featured as guest speakers to NAFC’s national audience.
“We continue to work with both the National and State Association of Free and Charitable Clinic as a model of high quality health care delivery to our most vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Mantione. “We are excited to have received this top rating highlighting our commitment to providing quality care for our patients.”
The Leahy Clinic, now in its 13th year of operation at the University’s Panuska College of Professional Studies, provides free non-emergency healthcare to uninsured Lackawanna County residents who may otherwise forego healthcare due to cost or seek care in hospital emergency rooms. Through the innovative collaboration of community health provider volunteers with undergraduate and graduate student volunteers and faculty members, as well as other University resources, the Leahy Clinic has been able to offer free care that includes medical, counseling, physical therapy and low vision services, along with exercise and nutrition classes. Since 2007, the clinic has served more than 7,000 individual patients through more than 16,000 visits.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered near Washington, D.C., the NAFC is working to ensure that the medically underserved have access to affordable quality health care and strives to be a national voice promoting quality health care for all. Both the NAFC and The Leahy Clinic for the Uninsured are dedicated to ensuring that patients receive quality health care.
The Leahy Clinic provides unparalleled academic experience and hands-on opportunities for our health care students.
Learn more about the Panuska College of Professional Studies.
Margaret C. Perez, Bethlehem, had known Edward R. Leahy, J.D. ’68, H’01, for more than 60 years. She knew his wife, Patricia, and their late son, Edward Jr. She also knew of the work of The University of Scranton’s Leahy Community Health and Family Center and Edward R. Leahy Jr. Center Clinic for the Uninsured housed in the Panuska College of Professional Studies, and was so impressed by its mission that she bequeathed a portion of her estate to the Edward R. Leahy Jr. Endowment at the University – a gift of nearly $1 million.