How do the Clinic’s costs compare to emergency room services?
People’s Community Clinic serves the entire Central Texas community by providing a medical home to people who would otherwise use the emergency room for primary care treatment of serious and chronic illness. A visit to the Clinic costs one-fourth the cost of an average trip to an emergency room. Data analyzed in 2007 by an independent researcher from University of Texas at Austin showed that new People’s Community Clinic patients used the ER nearly 33% less frequently than they did in the year prior to becoming clinic patients. Aside from providing cost savings to the entire Central Texas community, reduced emergency room use means emergency resource are available to treat patients with true medical emergencies.
