Operation Safety Net

Operation Safety Net (OSN) is a Street Medicine program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. OSN was founded when Dr. Jim Withers[1] and Mike Sallows began to make field visits to homeless in Pittsburgh.[2] In time, other formerly homeless outreach workers and medical volunteers joined the effort. In 1993, OSN became a nonprofit organization under the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System with Linda Sheets as the program administrator. In 2003, Kauthar B. Umar, MA writing for Office of Minority Health Resource Center described it as one of the nation's first full-time street-based medical delivery system.[3]

Operation Safety Net visits the homeless through walking teams medical outreach staff.[2]Most of OSN's work force are volunteers. Dr Withers was one of the ten recipients out of the 463 nominees of the $120,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program in 2002 and $105,000 of which was allocated to OSN.[4]

  1. Fahy, Joe. “Doctors meeting here to consider street peoples’ needs,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Monday, October 10, 2005.
  2. Malloy, Michael G. “Pittsburgh’s Operation Safety Net Is Making a Difference to the Underserved,” AAMC Reporter, March, 2003.
  3. Umar, Kauthar B. MA. “Health Care Headaches: Accessing Safety Net Services,” HHS Office of Minority Health Closing The Gap, August 2003.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.