Demonstration · Sawmill Free Clinic is not a real organization · every person, number and place is inventedDemo tour →

Seven services. Every one costs you $0.

What each service is for, how often, and what it costs the clinic per visit — with the sentence that says how that number was worked out. The patient side of every strip is the same: nothing.

Apply for care The services

An exam room: an exam table with fresh paper, a blood-pressure cuff mounted on the wall, a rolling stool, a small desk with a closed laptop, an otoscope on its wall bracket, a box of gloves and a sharps container, one teal accent wall and a window onto the town. — One of four exam rooms, all on the ground floor. Thirty minutes with the clinician, not ten.

The services

Read down the left; the cost is on the right

Primary care

For Adults 18 and over who qualify · How often Every session

A volunteer physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant sees you for the things a family doctor would: a new problem, a check-up, a prescription renewed. Thirty minutes, not ten. The nurse sees you first and the patient navigator sees you last, so nothing is left hanging.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$118per visit

How that was worked out

The clinic's cash cost of a primary-care visit: staff time, supplies, the building and administration, divided across 2025 primary-care visits. Volunteer clinician time is not valued; donated medication is not included.

Chronic-condition care

For Patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or COPD · How often Every one to three months

The same clinician each time where we can arrange it, an A1c or blood-pressure log that stays in your chart, and a nurse who calls between visits. Most of the clinic's visits are these, which is why the evening hours matter: a diabetes visit every three months is hard to fit into a working day.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$156per visit

How that was worked out

The primary-care cost plus the nurse's follow-up calls and the supplies a chronic visit uses (glucose strips, cuffs, spirometry), divided across 2025 chronic-care visits.

Medications

For Any clinic patient with a prescription from a clinic clinician · How often Filled at every session; refills by phone

Most medication comes free from the manufacturers' patient-assistance programs; the patient navigator does the paperwork, and the medication room holds ninety days at a time. What the programs do not cover, the clinic buys. Nothing is dispensed without a clinic prescription, and controlled substances are not stocked.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$31per visit

How that was worked out

The clinic's own spend on purchased medication and supplies ($112,000) plus the pharmacist volunteer coordinator's admin cost, divided across 2025 fills. Donated medication ($1,640,000 wholesale value) is counted separately and is not in this figure.

Labs

For Patients whose clinician orders a test · How often Drawn Thursday mornings; results at the next visit or by phone

Blood and urine tests drawn here on Thursday mornings by the nurse and sent to the hospital lab. The nurse calls with anything that cannot wait; everything else is explained at the next visit.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$34per visit

How that was worked out

The lab contract cost ($86,000) divided across 2025 draws. A hospital laboratory runs the tests at a negotiated rate the clinic pays.

Referrals to specialists

For Patients whose clinician refers them · How often As needed; the navigator books it

Twenty-two specialists in the county see clinic patients without charge, from cardiology to orthopaedics, and the hospital's community-benefit grant covers imaging. The navigator books the appointment, arranges a ride if you need one, and gets the report back into your chart.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$47per visit

How that was worked out

The patient navigator's time on referrals (about a third of the post) divided across 2025 referrals. The specialist's own time is donated and not valued.

Dental days

For Clinic patients in pain, or with a tooth that needs to come out or be filled · How often Four Saturdays a year, 28 chairs each

Volunteer dentists and hygienists, a rented mobile unit in the parking lot and every chair in the building. Extractions and fillings; cleanings when there is time. Places go to patients on the list first, then to walk-ins from 8 am.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$96per visit

How that was worked out

Supplies, sterilisation, the rented mobile unit and staff time for the four 2025 dental Saturdays, divided across 112 patients seen.

Spanish interpretation

For Anyone who would rather speak Spanish · How often Every session

A trained volunteer interpreter is in the building at every session, and the forms, the medication labels and the after-visit summary are in Spanish too. Say so when the navigator calls, or at the desk; nobody has to bring a relative to translate.

You pay$0Costs the clinic$9per visit

How that was worked out

The interpreters are volunteers; the figure is the training and scheduling cost divided across all 2025 visits, because interpretation is offered at every one.

Costs are the clinic’s cash costs for the year ended 30 June 2025, divided across that year’s visits of each kind. Volunteer clinician time is never valued in dollars; donated medication is counted separately on the Financials page. The whole clinic came to $134 a visit.

Two numbers, one visit

What a visit costs

$0to the patientEvery service, every visit, every prescription filled from the medication room. There is no sliding scale because there is no fee.

$134to the clinic, in cash$698,000 of expenses divided by 5,200 visits. Volunteer time not valued, donated medication not included.

22specialists in the countyWho see clinic patients without charge when the navigator refers them; the hospital’s community-benefit grant covers imaging.

Four Saturdays a year

Dental days

Next dental day: Saturday 17 October 7 of 28 places left. Extractions and fillings; cleanings if time allows. Clinic patients on the list first, then walk-ins from 8 am. Ask for a place →

Volunteer dentists and hygienists, a rented mobile unit in the parking lot, and every chair in the building. Extractions and fillings first; cleanings when there is time. Places go to clinic patients on the list, then to walk-ins from 8 am. The list is kept at the desk and by the navigator; the count above is the same one staff edit.

The dental-day setup before patients arrive: a portable folding dental chair, a rolling tray with sterile instrument packs in sealed pouches, a portable dental lamp, a suction unit, boxes of gloves and masks, a small window and white walls with teal trim. — Saturday, 7:40 am: an exam room turned into a dental chair. Twenty-eight chairs by eight.

How medication works here

The medication room

Most of what is dispensed comes free from the manufacturers’ patient-assistance programs: the navigator does the application, the manufacturer ships ninety days at a time to the clinic, and the pharmacist volunteer checks it in. What the programs do not cover, the clinic buys ($112,000 last year). Nothing is dispensed without a prescription written here, and controlled substances are not stocked.

Donated medication was worth $1.64 million last year at wholesale value. It is counted on the Financials page, separately, with the method.

The medication room: grey metal shelving with rows of plain white cartons and amber bottles with blank labels, a glass-front refrigerator, a pill-counting tray on a steel counter, a stool and a window with a teal frame. — The medication room, restocked on Thursdays. Ninety days of most things, all of it prescribed here.

The lab bench: a benchtop centrifuge, a rack of blood-draw tubes with blank coloured caps, a small tabletop analyzer with a dark screen, a box of gloves, a sharps container and a specimen refrigerator, under teal cabinets by a window with blinds. — The lab bench, Thursday at nine. Draws from 9 to 11; what the bench cannot run goes to the hospital lab under the community-benefit grant.

A Wednesday, hour by hour

What a session looks like

4:30Set-up

The nurse and the clinic manager open the rooms; the pharmacist checks the medication room against the log.

5:00Doors open

Walk-in blood-pressure checks with the nurse until six; the desk checks in the first appointments.

5:30First appointments

Two volunteer clinicians, one exam room each, thirty minutes a patient. Two interpreters on Wednesdays.

6:30Referrals

The navigator calls specialists’ offices while they are still open, and books rides in the van.

7:30Last patient

Booked at half past seven so that nobody is rushed and the pharmacist has time to fill everything.

8:00Count and lock

The pharmacist counts the room, the log is signed, the lights go off. Twelve to sixteen patients seen.

Sawmill Free Clinic · 214 Mill Street, Sawmill · 555-0180 · EIN 00-0000008 · [email protected] · a sample organization: every person, number and place is inventedAccessibility · A sample site · Built by connectNPO →