ABSTRACT
Responding to the medical needs of the homeless population across the United States exact large costs on the health care system. To provide effectively for such vulnerable populations, health care systems require creative and efficient strategies of service organization tailored to the specific needs of the homeless. However, such needs often vary by geographic region due to the inherent diversity of the population. Currently, no published medical evaluation of the urban homeless in Texas exists. Therefore, this study examines 93,074 diagnoses given to 20,331 homeless patients seen in a seven-year period in a primary care mobile and fixed clinic system. The most frequent disease conditions evaluated in this cohort of patients are reported. These findings may be useful to clinical site managers and health care planners contemplating an outreach program for the homeless.
Subject(s)
Ill-Housed Persons/statistics & numerical data , Morbidity , Needs Assessment , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Health Policy , Health Surveys , Humans , Infant , Male , Medical Audit , Middle Aged , Primary Health Care/organization & administration , Texas/epidemiology , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
We compared the effectiveness in identifying infants with positive results on urine screening for drugs of abuse of a universal screening program and a targeted screening program on the basis of clinical suspicion. A carefully run targeted screening program identified 24.3% of the admissions for toxicology testing and would have found all but two of the infants with positive results.
