Hartford Healthcare to bring free medical care across CT Saturday. Here’s how and why.

Helen I. Bennett, Hartford Courant
·3 min read

For nearly a decade, St. Vincent’s Medical Center has been offering a day of free medical care and other benefits for people in Bridgeport.

This year, parent Hartford HealthCare is taking the event statewide Saturday by hosting what is being called “Medical Mission at Home” at six locations.

“We said ‘why would we confine this to Bridgeport alone?’ ” Hartford HealthCare president and CEO Jeffrey Flaks said. “This is an opportunity to do it across the state of Connecticut to ensure that we don’t leave any community behind.”

Patients will be able to get free medical screenings and vaccines, as well as free shoes, winter coats, school supplies, meals and even haircuts, according to the health system.

“It’s about patient dignity, dignity for human beings,” Flaks said.

The clinics will also have pediatric doctors and psychologists, and offer eyeglasses, canes and walkers for patients who need them.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, president of St. Vincent’s medical staff, said the program has been a success in Bridgeport.

The clinics, for example, have helped the medical center engage with patients who were otherwise not seeing a doctor.

Cost was the most common barrier, but Gupta said many of the patients also often didn’t know where to go for services or had language difficulties or other reasons for not seeking medical care.

The clinics will offer multilingual aids, or navigators, who will work with individual patients to help them identify which services they need.

Patients will be able to find out if they have medical issues, including high blood pressure or glucose-related problems, and get an initial prescription on site.

“More importantly, they also get linked to a primary care access point or provider in the community so they don’t get lost after the mission is over that day,” Gupta said.

In many cases, that will include a referral to a federally qualified healthcare center in their community.

Gupta said the clinic at St. Vincent’s has helped bring people into the health care system, identifying patients’ needs and connecting them with help.

Flaks said that’s why Hartford HealthCare expanded to the program this year for the first time, with clinics in Hartford, Bridgeport and some of the network’s more remote locations.

“We don’t expect people to come to where we are, we need to meet them where they are,” he said.

Hartford HealthCare has been promoting the clinics in those communities, including through local health departments, religious organizations and community groups.

Flaks expects Hartford HealthCare could serve between 3,000 and 5,000 patients statewide.

The network will have as many as 2,500 volunteers to meet the need, including licensed staff from its hospitals and doctors offices.

“It’s an army of people coming together,” Flaks said.

“Medical Missions at Home” be take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at six locations Saturday, including:

  • Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich;

  • Windham Community & Senior Center, 1 Jillson Square, Willimantic;

  • Hartford Public High School, 55 Forest St, Hartford;

  • Coe Memorial Park Civic Center, 101 Litchfield St, Torrington;

  • South Church, 90 Main Street, New Britain; and

  • Cesar Batalla School, 606 Howard Ave, Bridgeport.