Serving the Underserved

A Mid-Course Evaluation of Montgomery Cares

Carole Roan Gresenz, Janice C. Blanchard, Teague Ruder, Shallon Craddock, Nicole Lurie

ResearchPublished Mar 20, 2009

This summary of the 2008 findings from a planned five-year evaluation (2006–2011) of the Montgomery Cares initiative, a Montgomery County, Maryland-funded program designed to provide basic health care to low-income, adult, uninsured county residents through financial support to community clinics, is based on data from the electronic medical records of Montgomery Cares patients, a patient survey, surveys of capacity and appointment availability at Montgomery Cares clinics, and stakeholder interviews. The evaluation results highlight a range of noteworthy positive developments related to Montgomery Cares, including an increase in the capital and human resource capacity at Montgomery Cares clinics, an expansion in the number of uninsured served and in the level and types of service provided, an increase in preventive care, and increased patient satisfaction. However, challenges remain, including increasing the availability of appointments, access to prescription drugs, and the availability of specialty care.

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Gresenz, Carole Roan, Janice C. Blanchard, Teague Ruder, Shallon Craddock, and Nicole Lurie, Serving the Underserved: A Mid-Course Evaluation of Montgomery Cares. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR683.html.
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This evaluation was sponsored the Primary Care Coalition (PCC) of Montgomery County, Maryland, with funding from the Montgomery County government and conducted in RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation.

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