Baltimore Safety Net Access-to-Care Survey 2004

For the fourth consecutive year, medical students participating in a summer internship program co-sponsored by OSI's Medicine as a Profession Program and Baltimore REACH surveyed Baltimore City residents who were accessing care at eight community clinics and resource centers throughout the city. The sample represents a cross-section of an urban poor population living at or below the federal poverty level and often in the context of significant and substantial physical and mental health disabilities while trying to achieve employment, raise and support a family, and secure safe and affordable housing. This survey provides a glimpse into how they survive day-to-day, the barriers and obstacles to care that they experience, their needs—both met and unmet—and the role being played by the community “safety net.”

This year's survey focuses on what has changed over the past four years for this population—what the current needs are, how and if those needs being met, and what obstacles remain or have grown—and considers whether the system of public and privately supported assistance is adequately responding to the challenges.