MetroWest Free Medical Program, Inc

Our overarching goal is to provide the highest quality of healthcare to our patients, both current and new, in a safe, comfortable environment.

Goal #1: Infrastructure: Develop our organizational infrastructure and facilities to more effectively support our patients, volunteers, and staff. The MetroWest Free Medical Program has steadily grown seeing more patients every year. We expect this trend to continue. Initially an all-volunteer organization, we have added six paid part time staff positions and incurred additional operational costs at all program locations. The physical space, particularly at the Sudbury location, is at capacity given the number of patients, the volunteers needed to staff the programs, and the space demands for the set-up of each program. Our infrastructure has remained relatively lean and the staff and volunteers have adapted to make the space and the programs work, but it is clear that the overall systems and the organization are being strained. Strengthening our infrastructure will allow us to operate more efficiently and effectively in order to meet the needs for patient care and provide our volunteers and staff with the tools they need to perform their jobs.

Goal #2: Provide for the growing needs of our patients beyond the services that the MetroWest Free Medical Program can offer. Our mission calls on us to serve as an entry point to the health care system and meet our patients’ immediate health care needs. Meeting these immediate needs is already a big challenge. However, our patients almost always have other health related needs that are beyond the Program’s capacity. Some of these needs are clinical such as ongoing primary care, mental health services, and access to particular medical specialties. Others are non-medical and require services to resolve problems that affect a patient’s health (e.g., asthma caused by mold in an apartment that the landlord refuses to remediate). In order to accommodate our patients’ needs, we will partner with other organizations that can provide the additional clinical and non-clinical services that allow our patients to address all of their healthcare issues.

Goal 3: Sustainability. Ensure that the MetroWest Free Medical Program remains financially sustainable.
Our sustainability depends upon additional revenue to invest in our space and operations. A successful financial management and revenue generating plan is critical to our ability to deliver our services and meet our strategic goals. Over the course of the next three years, we must move beyond foundation grant funding and engage both new and existing donors to embrace our mission and inspire them to give generously. At the same time, financial stability will provide us with the means to improve our facilities, support our staff and volunteers, and improve our overall operational structure.

Please see Strategic Plan

The MetroWest Free Medical Program (MWFMP), founded in 2004, serves as an entry point to the health care system for those in MetroWest who are uninsured/ insufficiently insured by providing general medical and specialty care to meet immediate health care needs; connecting patients with social services, health insurance and a medical home; and advocating for policies that assure good health for all people. Over the past 17 years, MWFMP has thrived with the continued dedication of volunteer physicians, nurses, community members, and dedicated team of five part-time staff and network of consultant interpreters.

As we do not charge patients for our services, our revenue is 100% from grants, allocations, and donations. We receive in-kind support through periodic donations of supplies and volunteer time. We have a strong reputation among local foundations, and a well-established track record of obtaining funding from a number of foundations and corporate sponsors and are building our base of individual donors. We are proud to have attained the 2022 Platinum Seal of Transparency as well as the 2021 National Association of Free Clinics Gold Standards Rating. The attainment of these standards, as well as renewed grant investments by Cummings Foundation, MetroWest Health Foundation, Sudbury Foundation, and many additional funders and donors, underscores both our commitment to quality standards as well as our reputation as a steadfast provider of free, quality patient care.