Mercy Health Clinic celebrated their 25th anniversary this month with an open house/reception and, later, by reporting nearly 1,300 unduplicated Montgomery Cares patients in the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2026. That’s an 18% increase over the same period in FY25. What began as a charity care project of Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac has become a patient centered medical home (PCMH) serving adults and adolescents in our community, including Care for Kids patients aged 13 and up.
The demand for services is high, but Mercy continues to measure compliance with PCMH standards, like the percent of visits patients have with their chosen provider. They’ve continued to meet or exceed those goals. “This is important to us as we continue to see an extremely high number of patients,” says Mercy Executive Director Mark Foraker. “It was a priority for us that we do not have a drop in quality metrics or overall patient satisfaction while scaling up.”
Meeting the competing needs for high service volume and low patient wait times is a continuing challenge, one the Mercy team is addressing by constantly reviewing patient booking patterns. “Nearly all of our providers are at capacity for visits per session,” Foraker notes, making their process improvement efforts critical to get the most of available provider hours without sacrificing the ability to provide same-day care for patients who need it. Mercy’s provider team included 30 clinical provider volunteers in the first quarter of FY26 and 661 clinical volunteer hours.
Sometimes, balancing quality standards and safety-net budgets requires a little creativity. Mercy recently began bundling screening services for patients with diabetes, conducting diabetic foot exams while patients were waiting for vision screenings by Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. These monthly screening days have increased the number of patients with diabetes who get recommended screenings for potential complications, including several patients in need of follow-up wound care. “This approach was driven by a volunteer with a background in wound care and desire to make good use of patient time while at the clinic for other procedures,” Foraker says.
Mercy also maintains a strong partnership with Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, seeing qualifying uninsured patients within two business days of hospital discharge—often offering same-day appointments for patients with more serious conditions. Mercy offers the intensive education and management support it takes for patients to avoid bouncing back to the hospital for challenges that could be better addressed in primary care.
This level of support often requires 6-8 visits in the initial three weeks following discharge for a diabetes-related hospitalization. Of the 43 patients enrolled in post-discharge support in 2022, only one had a potentially avoidable hospitalization—a diversion rate of 98%. In cost terms, the Mercy team estimates that patients with diabetes who receive their support and avoid repeat hospitalization cost approximately $1,110 in primary care costs, versus an estimated price tag of $2,200 for a single emergency hospital visit. (That is without counting the rapidly-mounting costs of any multi-day hospitalization.) Since those calculations only consider actual outlays for care—and not the full scope of productivity gained/lost or other household impacts—the return is likely much higher. The care health centers like Mercy provide is a solid community investment, and we’re proud to call them partners.
The demand for services is high, but Mercy continues to measure compliance with PCMH standards, like the percent of visits patients have with their chosen provider. They’ve continued to meet or exceed those goals. “This is important to us as we continue to see an extremely high number of patients,” says Mercy Executive Director Mark Foraker. “It was a priority for us that we do not have a drop in quality metrics or overall patient satisfaction while scaling up.”
Meeting the competing needs for high service volume and low patient wait times is a continuing challenge, one the Mercy team is addressing by constantly reviewing patient booking patterns. “Nearly all of our providers are at capacity for visits per session,” Foraker notes, making their process improvement efforts critical to get the most of available provider hours without sacrificing the ability to provide same-day care for patients who need it. Mercy’s provider team included 30 clinical provider volunteers in the first quarter of FY26 and 661 clinical volunteer hours.
Sometimes, balancing quality standards and safety-net budgets requires a little creativity. Mercy recently began bundling screening services for patients with diabetes, conducting diabetic foot exams while patients were waiting for vision screenings by Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. These monthly screening days have increased the number of patients with diabetes who get recommended screenings for potential complications, including several patients in need of follow-up wound care. “This approach was driven by a volunteer with a background in wound care and desire to make good use of patient time while at the clinic for other procedures,” Foraker says.
Mercy also maintains a strong partnership with Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, seeing qualifying uninsured patients within two business days of hospital discharge—often offering same-day appointments for patients with more serious conditions. Mercy offers the intensive education and management support it takes for patients to avoid bouncing back to the hospital for challenges that could be better addressed in primary care.
This level of support often requires 6-8 visits in the initial three weeks following discharge for a diabetes-related hospitalization. Of the 43 patients enrolled in post-discharge support in 2022, only one had a potentially avoidable hospitalization—a diversion rate of 98%. In cost terms, the Mercy team estimates that patients with diabetes who receive their support and avoid repeat hospitalization cost approximately $1,110 in primary care costs, versus an estimated price tag of $2,200 for a single emergency hospital visit. (That is without counting the rapidly-mounting costs of any multi-day hospitalization.) Since those calculations only consider actual outlays for care—and not the full scope of productivity gained/lost or other household impacts—the return is likely much higher. The care health centers like Mercy provide is a solid community investment, and we’re proud to call them partners.
RSS Feed