The MATCCH Foundation a Creates Community-Based Healthcare Model
Isaac Palmer, Jr., is president and co-founder of Minority Access to Comprehensive and Coordinated Healthcare (MATCCH) Foundation. Photos provided by James Mendez
Dr. Michael McGee, is the owner of Urgent Care & Occupational Health Physician and co-founder of Minority Access to Comprehensive and Coordinated Healthcare (MATCCH) Foundation. Photos provided by James Mendez
By Tia Carol Jones
Last year after attending a George Floyd protest, Isaac Palmer, Jr., along with a friend, were inspired to make a change in the Black community. They knew they couldn’t change the actions of the police, they couldn’t reach the Mayor, but they did know healthcare.
Palmer and his friend knew if they could improve healthcare in the community, they could improve the economics of the community. If they could improve the health of Black men, it would bolster the community.
Palmer has 20 years of experience in healthcare, he has worked in healthcare institutions in Illinois, Florida and Louisiana. From those experiences, he realized the hospitals are not at the forefront of changing community health outcomes.
“Most of the healthcare players are profit oriented, business oriented and charging clips for service,” said Palmer, who recently served as CEO of Adventist Hospital in Bolingbrook.
Palmer knew that there had to be a voice that speaking for the entire population and managing healthcare outcomes. Palmer and Dr. Michael McGee founded the Minority Access to Comprehensive and Coordinated Healthcare (MATCCH) Foundation.
The MATCCH Foundation seeks to provide a community-owned entity that reports to the community, without a profit motive. Partners includes the Church of God in Christ, the Premier Urgent Care and Occupational Health Center, the Cook County Physicians Association, an association of all Black physicians in Cook County.
A mutual friend of Palmer’s suggested he get connected to McGee, the co-owner of Premier, the only Black-owned Urgent Care facility on Chicago’s South Side.
McGee understood the model and started to add the clinical components, as well as the Urban Violence Prevention component. McGee does seminars in the community, teaching about Urban Violence Prevention.
The model includes free mental health screenings, community-based prevention programs and integrated technology driven resources.
“Studies show Blacks do not get the same treatment options as our white counterparts, that is regardless of your economic background, as well. We just don’t get the same pharmaceutical options, we don’t get the same treatment options, we don’t get the same specialist options. What our model does is it puts a concierge nurse that overlays on top of your care,” Palmer said.
Patients would not have to change their doctor. The concierge nurse would have access to a patient’s medical records and will call the patients or the doctor and advocate on someone’s behalf to get the best treatment. The concierge nurse also will understand the patient’s living arrangement – access to transportation, child care, access to nutritional foods – and tap social services to advocate for the patient.
The MATCCH Foundation has partnered with the Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents more than 300 Licensed Skilled Nursing facilities in the state. The goal of the partnership is to help patients to understand their long-term care options. It opens up options that are not previously available to the Black community on a regular basis.
Palmer acknowledged there are hospitals and health care institutions on the South side that have formed a collaboration and have put forth a good faith effort. But the MATCCH Foundation’s model is different.
“COVID-19 brought into stark reality the systemic health inequities in the Black community that only grew worse in the pandemic. MATCCH's mission is to attack the sources of these inequities by empowering community health organizations and support services to close the widening gap in healthcare in Chicago's least served neighborhoods,” McGee said. “We want going to the doctor to become as routine as going to the barber for a haircut. We want to build that level of confidence, comfort and trust in the healthcare system with our patients, especially our Black men, as they have in the barber's chair. MATCCH's integrated care model is designed so that when our patients get in contact with the concierge nurse, they can confidently ask questions and get the answers they need and ultimately be pointed in the right direction of the best care plan."
MATCCH is building the governance structure, building partners, which Palmer and McGee will present to the State of Illinois for healthcare transformation dollars. The hope is the model will be rolled out by Spring of 2022.
For more information, visit www.matcchfoundation.org.
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