[Excerpted from Chicago Tribune]
Director of Development and Communities, Laura Ciresi Starr
Free clinic CommunityHealth, which has locations in West Town and Cragin, distributes about 30,000 prescriptions each year, said Laura Ciresi Starr, the clinic’s director of development and communities. But it can sometimes run short on items such as asthma inhalers. When that happens, clinic staff must often help patients fill out applications to participate in drugmakers’ patient assistance programs, through which they can get free or discounted medication, but that can take time.
“In some instances, like the inhalers, currently we are not able to provide as many as we would like or as what might be prescribed,” Ciresi Starr said. “We simply can’t afford to buy every individual inhaler.”