By Tanzim Didar
Healthcare is a fundamental need; however, there are many inequities within the system. Almost 13 million people say they know a friend or family member who has died because they couldn’t afford care, according to CBS News.
According to HUD Archives: News Releases, on a single night in January 2020, 580,466 people, about 18 out of every 10,000 people, experienced homelessness across the U.S. — a 2.2% increase from 2019.
Much of healthcare in the U.S. is not affordable and thus not given equally. However, there are many nonprofit clinics that are dedicated to addressing these disparities.
Katherine Stier, director of marketing and public relations for Capital Health, a nonprofit hospital located in east Trenton among other locations, shared her insights on nonprofits and how they help the community.
Capital Health’s main hospital, which is a level two trauma center, is located on Brunswick avenue in Trenton. They have an additional hospital in Hopewell, which is located across the street from the Trenton airport.
“I handle the community education events at Capital Health,” Stier said. “I’ve been here for about seven years and Capital Health has been in Trenton for 50 to 80 years.”
Stier, who has worked in healthcare for 25 years, said 90% of hospitals are for profit.
“As a nonprofit, we don’t really make money,” Stier said. “We always try to take in medicare and medicaid patients, because everyone has a right to care. We also have balance because there are people who have healthcare insurance and they pay, but when you walk into our emergency department, some individuals don’t have health insurance, so we work with individuals to tighten up on a paying system or government substance.”
Stier said Capital Health implements initiatives that helps sure each individual patient is receiving the care they need.
“All in all, we take care of everybody,” she said. “Some hospitals only take some kind of insurance or payers, letting them decide who they can take in or not, but we do not do that here.”
Given the demographics of Trenton, a lot of individuals do not have health insurance or may not be citizens, and are afraid to go to the hospital, so Capital Health tries to take care of many individuals and make them feel comfortable.
“We also have a mother baby clinic where we take care of people, so there are a lot of different events and care given,” Stier said. “We run a food pantry every week through Arm and Arm and we go to different sites and hand out food. We are really involved in Trenton beauce the CEO is all about Trenton and the community. He feels that with the healthcare system, it’s really our basic goal to be the center of the city because if you’re healthy, you don’t need to go to our ER. We want to keep everyone healthy.”
Since its establishment, Capital Health’s mission statement has never changed. They have always been committed to serving the city of Trenton.
“I’ve always been in healthcare,” she explained. “So, I started off at a children’s hospital, where 93% of every dollar went towards patient care, so patients don’t need insurance. I would see some of these children come in who were paralyzed and missing a limb, and they would leave with a prosthetic arm, leg at no cost and or even get back surgery, basically things that would help them live their life at a better quality.”
“For me, it’s always been an involved process,” Stier added.”I just see the good there is. The facility is always making sure individuals are fed and getting free screening they need. Some of our doctors are the most compassionate people I have ever met in my life. They give so much of their time and energy to work these free screenings, give lectures and make sure everyone receives what they need. If I can just tell their stories, then I have done my job.”
