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Dr. Sharon Buttress and CAMcare

Dr. Sharon Buttress, Medical Director and Corporate Vice President, CAMcare Health Corporation

Originating in 1978 with one facility, CAMcare Health Corporation has become Camden City's and one of Camden County's largest providers of primary care services. Since 1993, Dr. Sharon Buttress has served as Medical Director and Corporate Vice President of CAMcare, the second largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in New Jersey. CAMcare maintains a strong commitment to its mission of providing high quality comprehensive health services to underserved families of Camden and South Jersey. Through continuous process and quality improvement initiatives and programs, CAMcare has earned Joint Commission on Accreditation Gold Seal of Approval by delivering high quality health care services to patients and maintaining high HEDIS rates.

With Camden City ranked as the nation's second poorest city, CAMcare staff feels strongly that local residents are entitled to the same health care as people who have health insurance. Dr. Buttress emphasized, "We do not believe in two-tiered medicine. So the care I give to an underserved or uninsured patient is the same quality care given to a patient with insurance at a private practice."

With 87,000 residents, Camden City's population is about 53 percent African American and 40 percent Hispanic. Camden City is an old city with a young population and a median age of 27 years. Dr. Buttress commented, "Understanding the population helps us tailor the services around patients' needs. Camden City has a lot of women in the reproductive age with young children."

Situated one mile within any direction of the North Camden, South Camden, East Camden and the Gateway Headquarters, CAMcare's four facilities give patients easy access to primary care services. "CAMcare patients will see health care professionals reflective of the people living right in their communities," commented Dr. Buttress. "It is important for us to have a diverse staff representative of the communities we serve because it helps our patients feel more comfortable when they are in for services."

In 2005, a staff of 43 physicians and nurse practitioners saw 28,585 patients, totaling 127,000 visits among CAMcare's four facilities and seven school-based sites. Dr. Buttress remarked, "Having the four primary care services, pediatrics, internal medicine, women's health and dental, allow us to offer different models of primary care. When our patients come in for services, they do not come to visit a clinic. They come to see their personal doctor or dentist. We treat all patients using a family-oriented and patient-centered approach to primary care. Our facilities are run like a private office, but with enhancements. Patients find one stop shopping whenever possible, with the patient at the center, moving the services around the patient, rather than the patient around the services. This model helps keep patients on site for services."

CAMcare's patients have access to a primary care physician 24 hours, seven days a week, including walk-in, evening and weekend hours. Dr. Buttress remarked, "We encourage our patients to call us for any of their problems before they decide to go to the emergency room. Patients will reach a doctor on call 365 days a year. Our goal is to keep our patients out of the hospital. Often we can handle their concerns over the phone and get them through the morning until they can be seen in the office the next day. When they need hospital facilities, one of our physicians cares for them as inpatients when they are having their babies or receiving care for medical conditions."

Dr. Buttress concluded, "Our challenge is finding ways of delivering services to our patients. We accomplish this by bringing in services on site, such as mammography and expanding outside of Camden City proper into areas new sites in Lindenwold, NJ, and Gloucester County using state funding grants for FQHCs."

Below is a sampling of Some of CAMcare's services, programs and partnerships
CAMcare designs programs and services that deliver access to health care and enhance the quality of health for patients. Innovative partnerships with community organizations benefits CAMcare’s patients.
  • Primary Care Services
    • Pediatrics
    • Internal medicine
    • Women’s health. OB/Gyn
    • Dental services in the East Camden and Gateway Health sites
    • Four facilities: East Camden, North Camden, South Camden and Gateway Headquarters
    • Seven school-based sites
  • Financial Screening
    • As a FQHC, CAMcare screens all uninsured patients, regardless of their ability to pay. Staff can determine whether patients are eligible for Medicaid or Medicare and can begin the enrollment process right on the spot. “At one time, CAMcare was the most successful FQHC in the state to enroll people into NJ FamilyCare. If we can convert a patient to insured status, we will do it and we will facilitate and help the patient in any way we can to get them the service or benefit,” remarked Dr. Buttress.
  • Language services
    • The professional health care staff speak about 14 different languages, with Spanish being the dominant language spoken. About 50 percent of our ancillary staff is bilingual and bilingual patient education literature is available for patients.
    • One of CAMcare’s two Certified Diabetes Educators is Latino. “When she speaks with Hispanic patients who are diabetic, she can talk with them in terms of their cultural and ethnic foods, which they buy and eat; and not yogurt,” explained Dr. Buttress
  • Supplemental medication program
    • CAMcare helps uninsured patients get medication for free through a contract with a local pharmacy on a short-term basis.
  • Outreach Services
    • Home visits
    • Transportation
    • Social workers
    • Dieticians
  • As part of the New Jersey Immunization Registry, CAMcare ensures pediatric patients are immunized for vaccine preventable diseases. Dr. Buttress emphasized, “Immunizing children has been a huge undertaking and we have all come along way in this area. In 1994, the immunization coverage rates in Camden City for two-year old children were about 38 percent. Now, the rates are closer to 80 percent.”
  • The Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative and the Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies programs work with CAMcare, which enhances the maternal health department.
  • As an American Diabetes Association Center of Excellence for diabetes education, CAMcare has developed programs for approximately 2,000 patients followed for diabetes.
  • The Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired brings equipment and physicians on site two times a year and provides dilated retinal eye exams to about 70 patients who may have emerging conditions or need to be seen by an ophthalmologist. Dr. Buttress noted, “We outreach to our patients and get them scheduled for visits when on site eye exams are being given.”
  • The Camden Board of Education contracts with CAMcare to deliver services to students. Dr. Buttress remarked, “Pediatricians and nurse practitioners provide age-appropriate primary care services to students in two Camden high schools and all five middle schools when students come in with non-urgent, urgent, or emergent matters.”
  • CAMcare belongs to the federal Health Disparity Collaboratives (HDC) in diabetes and the state Health Disparity Collaborative for asthma. “These programs target individuals specifically needing care tailored around health disparities and chronic diseases. CAMcare plans to spread activities to cardiovascular conditions,” mentioned Dr. Buttress.
  • The Camden County Division of Senior Services funds a senior dental program that sees seniors onsite once a week and gives discounted visits.
  • In partnerships with training programs, CAMcare brings in medical students and residents, so they can have experiences working in a community health center as well as with the underserved populations. Dr. Buttress hopes that physicians and students will understand that a FQHC is not a clinic and maybe one day, students will return to work at a community health center like CAMcare. “We also partner with schools that train nurse practitioners and physician assistants, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Hahnemann University Hospital and the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey,” Dr. Buttress noted.