For those in need: Organization brings low-cost health care to the masses

Information For more information about Health Projects 2000 and its fund drive, call 558' -3229.

She noticed the pain in her right breast about two weeks ago.

Maria Galinda knew something was wrong, but the 51-year-old native of Mexico didn't know what she could do about it. She has no health insurance. Her only income is about $500 a month, which she earns babysitting her grandchildren.

Then she saw an ad on a Spanish-language television station that might ultimately save her life. It was a promotion by the nonprofit organization Health Projects 2000, informing those who have low incomes and no health insurance that free cancer screening is available.

"Without this, I had no other choice,"Galinda, who does not speak English, said through interpreter Maria Marusic.

Marusic, a native of Argentina who has a degree in biochemistry from UCLA, wears many hats. She is the senior administrator for Health Projects 2000 in addition to being one of its interpreters. Marusic also sometimes acts as a chauffeur, driving clients to health screenings and appointments with doctors. Recently she took Galinda to the Cannon Medical Center, at 340 N. 11th St., for a series of tests. Health Projects 2000 subcontracts its screening procedures to the center.

Depending on the outcome of those tests, Marusic may be taking Galinda to other labs for more tests. Galinda is one of the lucky ones who learned that help for those in her situation is available. There are thousands of others in Nevada who are in the dark about a federally funded project (available in every state) that provides free cancer screening.

Women's Health Connection, a program in the Health Division of the state Department of Human Resources, administers the grant from the Centers for Disease Control. It sub-contracts health screening to about 170 providers statewide, such as Health Projects 2000, which is based in Henderson.

Pam Graham, who administers Women's Health Connection, says only about 9,000 women take advantage of the screening program in Nevada.

"There are about 132,000 who are qualified," Graham said.

But, she noted, the grant (75 percent federal, 25 percent state) is only sufficient to cover 12-15 percent of those eligible. Yet even with the under-funding, there still are not enough women taking advantage of the female-specific cancer screenings.

Recruiting

Health Projects 2000 is doing all it can to change that, by aggressively seeking out candidates for the exams. Last year the organization screened 900 women (10 percent of the state's total of those screened) and it is expected to help 2,000 women get screened this year.

To qualify, women must be 18 or older, have minimum or no health insurance and meet income guidelines. In addition to annual breast exams, the screenings may include a clinical exam, education about self-check breast exams, mammograms, pelvic exam, cervical screening, PAP smears and bone-density screening.

But cancer screening is only one of the services provided by the company, which has five employees (it sub-contracts most of its work to health-care professionals).

Kenneth Little, Jr., co-founder and executive administrator, says Health Projects 2000 is the largest provider of bone-density testing in the state. Last year it screened more than 3,000 people for osteoporosis, which he said affects 28 million Americans. Unless the test is done in conjunction with cancer screening, it costs about $25.

Health Projects 2000 owns four portable bone-density testing machines, which it routinely sets up at malls, corporate offices and other locations.

While cancer screening and bone-density testing are the core of the services provided by the company, it also offers other services and has more on the drawing board, including a plan to send a fleet of mobile medical units into low-income neighborhoods, to business locations and into the rural areas of the state to offer primary medical care.

The company also educates corporations and individuals about the Americans with Disabilities Act, has a contract to provide on-site diagnostic health screenings at state prisons, and is developing a prostate cancer screening program for men and a program of health screening for members of organized sports leagues (adult and youth).

Little was employed by a medical equipment supplier in Southern California company that moved to Las Vegas in 1988. Two years later the company was bought out by a competitor.

He and Linda Stanton (an occupational therapist) started a company that sub-contracted physical therapists to nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and home-health agencies.

"We found a niche and filled it," Little said. "We had 30 therapists and 18 contracts (with facilities)."

In 1998 the company bought a portable bone-density testing machine.

"I put it in my mobile clinic -- which at that time was my '86 Ford pickup truck -- and started going to clinics and nursing homes all over the state and doing bone-density tests," Little said.

Within a year Little had done 2,000 tests and osteoporosis testing became the backbone of the company, until about two years ago when Marusic arranged the contract with the Women's Health Connection.

Little said the contract guaranteed a minimum of 500 breast exams in the first six months. They ended up doing 500 in the first 90 days and have been increasing the number ever since.

"We are now the largest provider to the project," he said.

In Las Vegas, most of the cancer screening for Health Projects 2000 takes place at the Cannon Medical Center, a health facility that focuses on care for low-income people.

Mel Velasquez, the clinic's administrator, said Little's company does an outstanding job finding eligible clients and educating them about their choices.

"They bring in about 30 patients a week," Velasquez said.

Many of the clients being screened on behalf of Health Projects 2000 learn they also qualify for medical treatment by the clinic's physician.

"A lot of the patients end up using our doctor as their primary care physician," Velasquez said.

Mobilizing

Little wants to expand his health care services even more with mobile units.

On January 1, Health Projects 2000 began a fund drive called Project MOVe to raise $6.5 million to buy 10 medically equipped Winnebagos and other vehicles, which will be used as rolling medical clinics that travel to remote areas of the state as well as to low-income neighborhoods in cities.

"We've been thinking about mobile clinics for 11 years," Little said, "In December we decided it was time to pursue it."

They want Winnebagos, which cost more than $200,000 apiece, because of the vehicle's structural design and because Winnebago has designed a mobile medical unit, called a MED-1.

The goal is to buy four MED-1 vehicles equipped with mammography equipment ($250,000 each); six customized medical clinics ($200,000 each); a travel trailer ($70,000); a pickup truck ($40,000); a Hummer ($125,000) and 10 Saturn station wagons (total cost $250,000).

The rest of the money would be spent on clinical equipment, communication systems, computers and miscellaneous needs such as salaries, maintenance and insurance.

Little said 80 percent of all the money Health Projects 2000 brings in returns to programs. He doesn't even have an office, preferring to work out of his house rather than spending the money on unnecessary space.

"Most of our business is by phone, fax and computer anyway. I don't need an office," Little said.

While $6.5 million may sound like a lot of money to raise, Little said in Las Vegas it isn't out of reach.

"That much crosses every table every 10 hours in casinos. And everyone understands the importance of a mobile clinic."

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