Stretch, Stretching, Stretched

Historically, January has been a slow month at the Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett. We rarely look at January as a predictor of what our work load may be during the remainder of the year, except I know we usually see 30% more patients per month from September to December that we did in January. However, today I noticed something that has previously missed my attention. We served 2,069 people in January 2017, then in January 2018 we served 2,417, and this January we served 2,882. Not only are we growing 20% a year during what is typically our slowest month, estimating from this recent January we could serve nearly 15,000 people in just the last four months of 2019.

I ask you to stop and think about this with me for a minute. How much more demand can we absorb? Where will the needed resources come from to support what will be our eighth consecutive year of double digit growth? What would be the consequences for Gwinnett if we were to say, “Sorry, we’re tapped out; we can’t stretch any farther.”?

Of course, I hope those words are never spoken; we want to serve our community. We want to stretch and help anyone who would turn to us for care. We are already stretched, yes indeed, yet we want to serve even more still. But we need you to help us do so. With 89% of our operating cost being driven by patient volume alone, our rate of growth last year (32,882 visits) was so fast we had to fund a portion of our operating expenses with cash reserves. We thank God we were provisioned and able to do so, but that is not a long-term strategy. Increasing our support from donors is, though, a practical long-term strategy. That’s where you come in. Please, ask yourself two questions:

Do I support the work of the Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett? Would I like to see Good Sam Gwinnett continue to serve the growing need of the poor and uninsured of Gwinnett?

If you answered Yes to those easy questions, please ask yourself just two more:

Can I make a donation to support the annually increasing work of Good Sam Gwinnett? Do I know someone who might match my donation?

If you answered Yes to either or both of those questions, I hope you won’t mind that I now point you to the Donate and Share button below. Please, click those now.