The Ithaca Free Clinic: a multidisciplinary health services delivery model that includes complementary and alternative medicine practitioners.

ABSTRACT

Inadequate access to health care services poses a considerable threat to public health and has significant national economic consequences. In the following report, the authors describe a financially stable, multidisciplinary free community health clinic that has operated successfully in Ithaca, New York, since 2006. The clinic provides a diverse collection of conventional and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services. The establishment of multidisciplinary free community health clinics in other geographical areas with large uninsured and underinsured populations and the integration of CAM services into them may be a viable strategy to improve access to health services and thereby improve other communities' health.