Ideas That Work: Donating Care

We believe it’s a good idea for our community that we help patients with no insurance who are unable to have surgery. Some time ago, one of our surgeons was looking for a way to help uninsured and underinsured patients, which led us to Surgery on Sunday Louisville (Ky.) (SOSL). We’ve been providing free cataract surgeries to SOSL patients referred to us ever since.

While SOSL (soslouisville.org) started out by holding dedicated Sunday multi-patient events at surgery centers (hence its name), we’re using a more fluid “add-on” model, where we treat SOSL patients during regular hours. We see them at the end of the day’s schedule, after staff clock out, which ensures our staffers are officially volunteers, negating any potential liability. SOSL has codified this in its guidelines; the organization carries liability insurance for procedures it places at surgery centers.

Our staff gets positive vibes from helping people who can’t normally afford to have their eyesight corrected. And we’re not the only area center that participates; others include Premier Surgery Center of Louisville, University of Louisville Physicians Healthcare Outpatient Surgery Center and Metro Specialty Surgery Center. SOSL is trying to spread awareness of the concept to other communities throughout the country. If you’re interested in this charitable model in your area, drop SOSL a line.

Vicki Lococo, RN
Sherry Oeswein, RN
Dupont Surgery Center
Louisville, Ky.
[email protected]