Published: Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 10:07 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 10:07 p.m.

BARTOW | Polk County's volunteer medical clinics and other programs receiving indigent-care funding from the county are treating an increasing number of patients.

That growth illustrates the unceasing need for health care countywide.

Data on patients and treatment costs, presented at Friday's Citizens Oversight Committee meeting, gives the COC added guidance in determining where money from Polk's indigent-care sales tax should be spent to help meet some of the need.

This is the first time COC members have seen unduplicated patient numbers in this format, said Jan Howell, who directs the Polk HealthCare Plan. That plan is a core element of the county's effort to help county residents who lack health insurance.

Consideration of those numbers was part of a larger discussion on different ways in which the county now spends money from the half-cent indigent care sales tax.

In 2010-11, 7,892 patients were treated at five free clinics and at Central Florida Health Care, which sees some county funded patients and charges others on a sliding fee scale.

In the first six months of this fiscal year, the patient total for those programs reached 6,100 and is continuing to grow. The Haley Center in Winter Haven and Angels Care Center of Eloise already have exceeded their numbers from all of 2010-11.

When other programs getting tax dollars are added to the mixture, the total number of unduplicated patients seen at these programs was 12,722 in 2010-11 and already was at 10,041 in the first six months of this fiscal year. (Those numbers include the free clinics and Central Florida Health Care.)

Added to that, the Polk HealthCare Plan has paid for treatment given 8,015 patients from Oct. 1, 2011, into April of this year.

Continued here:

Polk's Medical Clinics Treating More Patients