Two-thirds of outpatient care for uninsured people in the District has been provided by private, nonprofit clinics that rely on grants and donations, city officials said, and those clinic managers are especially nervous. They worry that the program will offer their patients few new services and only add confusion. I am encouraged because we have so many good people trying to make it work. D.C. Health Department Director Ivan C.A. Walks told a meeting of clinic officials Thursday that massive problems for the private clinics are unlikely because every outpatient service at D.C. General and six former PBC satellite clinics is being preserved and will be operated by the alliance. We have to be flexible and respond to the unexpected.
Patient safety comes first.
The mayor plans to appoint a 30-member advisory commission this week to monitor the new system and report to the public on its performance. Now, the predominantly black National Medical Association and its D.C. chapter. The commission membership also will include Ahkter and another former D.C. health chief, Georges C. Benjamin, now Maryland's secretary of health and mental hygiene. Benjamin said he will serve partly because the District's solutions have a direct effect on health services and public health in suburban Maryland. It's a good plan, and what it needs is a group of people to provide the oversight and make sure that the public truly gets the service we are paying for.