Category: Healthcare

How Healthcare Nonprofits Benefit Your Community

When a person visits the doctor, dentist, psychologist, optometrist, or emergency room, they usually don’t even think about whether the clinic or hospital is a nonprofit or for-profit entity.

How Healthcare Nonprofits Benefit Your Community

When a person visits the doctor, dentist, psychologist, optometrist, or emergency room, they usually don’t even think about whether the clinic or hospital is a nonprofit or for-profit entity. Yes, these types of entities have different responsibilities when it comes to paying taxes, but there are also important distinctions between the two that results in nonprofit healthcare providers playing an important, irreplaceable role in our communities.
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6 Ways Nonprofit Healthcare Providers Benefit the Community

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1. Lower Cost, Same Quality

Nonprofit healthcare providers don’t answer to investors, don’t have to worry about reinvestment, and they aren’t focused on financial growth. However, they are held to the same quality of standards as for-profit healthcare entities. As a result, patients of nonprofit healthcare providers enjoy the same level of care at a much lower price.

2. Community Outreach and Orientation

Nonprofit healthcare providers answer to their board of directors and the community. As a result, they’re focused on providing higher quality community outreach programs, certain services for free, listening to community feedback, and orienting their services to their community’s specific needs.

3. Accessibility

Regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, all healthcare providers are required to provide care to stabilize patients who are in danger. Once patients are stabilized, for-profit providers can lawfully discharge patients who can’t afford ongoing care. Nonprofit healthcare providers are required to treat all patients, regardless of the direness or severity of their situation. Life-threatening or not, able to pay or not, nonprofits treat all patients in all conditions.

4. Uncompensated Care

Nonprofits are also expected to provide a certain percentage of their care for free. As a result, they often forgive unpaid bills and offer community clinics free of charge.

5. Don't Pay for Unnecessary Services

Since nonprofit healthcare providers aren’t worried about satisfying investors or achieving financial growth, they have no incentive to administer or excessively up-charge patients for non-essential services like aspirin or inexpensive laboratory tests.

6. Variety of Services

Nonprofit healthcare providers tend to offer a wider variety of services than for-profit healthcare entities. As a result, patients can access all the services and specialists they need in a single location.

Learn How Gulf Coast Health Center Can Benefit You

With five locations and a mobile medical center, we specialize in providing high-quality, affordable healthcare services to residents of Southeast Texas. As a nonprofit healthcare provider, we strive to make high-quality medical care accessible to everyone. Gulf Coast Health Center offers general health and wellness, behavioral care, dental, vision care, and more to patients!
To learn more about our services or to schedule an appointment, we welcome you to contact the Gulf Coast Health Center location nearest you.
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Staying Healthy and Stopping the Spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Novel Coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, has arrived in Texas (track the state’s up-to-date case count by county here). With the spread of the highly contagious disease in our state, Gulf Coast Health Center wants to do everything we can to help keep our communities safe and healthy by raising awareness and preventing further transmission of this virus

Staying Healthy and Stopping the Spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Novel Coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, has arrived in Texas (track the state’s up-to-date case count by county here). With the spread of the highly contagious disease in our state, Gulf Coast Health Center wants to do everything we can to help keep our communities safe and healthy by raising awareness and preventing further transmission of this virus. Whether you’re part of an at-risk group or not, the best way to keep yourself, your loved ones, your neighbors, and people who are at a high-risk safe from COVID-19 is to educate yourself on the facts about the novel Coronavirus.

How Does Coronavirus Spread?

COVID-19 is transmitted through exposure to respiratory droplets deposited into the air from sneezing or coughing. It can also spread as a result of touching contaminated surfaces.

Tips for Preventing the Spread of COVID-19

Basic preventative measures against novel Coronavirus include:
  • Frequent hand washing
  • Social distancing
  • Not touching your eyes, nose, or mouth
  • Covering coughs and sneezes
  • Wearing a mask when you are sick
  • Disinfecting frequently used or touched surfaces

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of COVID-19?

  • Patients with COVID-19 report:
  • Mild to severe respiratory illness
  • Dry cough
  • Fever
  • Shortness of breath

Who Is at the Highest Risk Due to Coronavirus?

The following groups are at an elevated risk of developing serious illness after contracting COVID-19:
Adults over 65
People with medical issues such as:
  • Lung disease and respiratory problems
  • Heart disease or high blood pressure
  • Diabetes
  • Cancer
  • Weakened immune system

What to Do If You Are Sick

Coronavirus symptoms can develop 2 to 14 days after exposure. If you suspect you have contracted COVID-19, follow the CDC’s recommendations, which include staying at home, monitoring symptoms, avoiding contact with pets and people, wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and sterilizing surfaces. If you are a high-risk individual, call your doctor’s office right away for instruction. This will allow them to provide you with care without putting others at risk of exposure. If you have any emergency symptoms such as struggling to breathe, persistent chest pain, new confusion, or bluish lips, seek emergency care immediately. If you are generally healthy and not a high-risk case, then it’s best to remain at home, stay hydrated, and care for yourself, as you would when suffering from influenza or a cold virus. If you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed, please call Gulf Coast Health Center or your nearest emergency room as soon as possible. We will provide you with instructions for receiving care without putting others at risk. If you have any other concerns, we welcome you to contact any of our five clinics.