The Silver Spring Penguin

The county’s new director of health services, to be announced today, inherits an overflowing safety net for the uninsured. The problem: Infrastructure can’t keep up with the demand.

Update appended. (Jan 30, 2007)

“We’re bursting at the seams,” says Sharon Zalewski, whose county-funded Center for Health Care Access manages primary-care programs for the uninsured.

Speaking at Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee Monday night, Zalewski says area clinics have outgrown their capacity to expand services.

One healthcare program, Care for Kids, serves almost 4,000 uninsured children. Zalewski estimates an additional 1,000 kids live in the county without any healthcare.

A similar program, Montgomery Cares, serves nearly 12,000 uninsured adults. However, that program expects to serve three times that number by 2010, says Ruth Martin, with the county’s department of health and human services.

Furthermore, Martin predicts the demand for low-cost healthcare will likely increase in Silver Spring and other urban centers, as those who can afford healthcare migrate to the suburbs.

Three low-cost clinics operate in urban Silver Spring: Holy Cross Hospital’s health center at Montgomery College (7987 Georgia Ave), the Community Clinic (8210 Colonial Ln), and Teen Connection for girls and young women (1400 Spring St).

Washington Adventist Hospital may open a clinic on Arliss Street in Long Branch, though the location has not been finalized. Whether county-funded programs will provide services at the proposed clinic is unclear.

Martin warns that the issue of overcrowding will not resolve immediately, even with increased funding. Securing space and constructing new clinics “is not a quick process,” she says.

“We need more capacity,” Martin says. “We have more individuals [without insurance] in the county than we know what to do with.”

Update: MoCo exec Ike Leggett named Uma Ahluwalia as director of the county’s department of health and human service. (Jan 30, 2007)

Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.