Cambridge Hospital, Neighborhood Clinics Treat Locals

Sneeze or wheeze, bump or lump, the Cambridge Hospital is the medical center to which community residents from all walks of life turn for quality care and first-rate service.

"The people at Cambridge Hospital know a great deal about how to meet the needs of a diverse urban population," says Matthew E. Fishman '80, director of community benefit programs at Boston-based Partners HealthCare, Inc., a non-profit healthcare delivery system composed of doctors and hospitals.

"Number one on [Cambridge Hospital's] agenda is serving the community," Fishman says.

A teaching facility for Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical School, the hospital provides primary care at its main Cambridge Street location and at 23 neighborhood clinics.

As part of its community service program, the hospital recently opened one of the country's first school-based clinics at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a local public high-school.

The hospital offers a range of payment options to accommodate the diverse socioeconomic backgrounds of area residents.

Eighty-five percent of those who seek treatment at the hospital receive some form of public assistance, says Martha E. Francis, the hospital's director of marketing.

The hospital has provided a model for attending to the special needs of elderly, non-native, and uninsured patients.

"We're all trying to do what Cambridge Hospital has been doing for years," says Fishman, who oversees community programs at the Mass. General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Through its affiliations with Partners and with CareGroup, Inc., which manages the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Cambridge Hospital enjoys the ability to outsource.

The network arrangement allows the hospital to refer patients with needs beyond primary care to hospitals where they can receive expert attention.

In 1993, the American Hospital Association awarded the hospital its Foster G. McGaw Prize for extraordinary accomplishment in community service.

Patients with incomes that do not exceed 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines are eligible for a version of the hospital's Network Health program that offers free services from any health-care provider within Cambridge's network.

About 8,000 Cantabrigians are enrolled in this plan, Francis says.

"[Cambridge Hospital] has a reputation for taking care of the poor and the uninsured," says William D. Terry, vice president for corporate sponsored research at Partners, Inc.

Two other versions of Network Health apply to patients with incomes reaching only 133 percent of the federal guidelines.

Serving 1,300 area residents, these plans function like commercial insurance, says Francis. Free care extends beyond the healthcare providers within Cambridge Hospital's network.

Funding for the hospital's programs comes from state reimbursements and minimal municipal contributions.

According to Fishman, the hospital remains fiscally healthy through prudent use of available resources.

"They are really trying to put the maximum number of dollars they are getting into care for patients in the most cost-effective settings that will meet the patients' needs," Fishman says.

The hospital has been able to save surplus funds, some of which will be used to pay for infrastructural improvements including a new birth center and an outpatient facility, says Scott Davis, director of public relations.