ABSTRACT
When Jim Zimmerman became the executive director of HealthReach clinic in 2004, he was faced with revamping the tight budget and choosing which of the free clinic’s programs to expand. HealthReach was the only free clinic serving the uninsured poor in the Lake County, Illinois, area. The clinic offered traditional primary and preventive health care and was developing several other programs, including a primary care clinic for women and an eye care clinic for diabetic patients. One of several promising programs was Healthcare Access by Language Advocacy (HABLA), a medical interpretation program developed in 2001 to bridge the frustrating language gap between the volunteer medical staff and their Hispanic patients, many of whom spoke little or no English.
