At the Community Health & Wellness Center, Juan Depaz listens closely to Dr. Patrick Wright. The two discuss a customized treatment plan using a video remote interpreting service to ensure that no communication is lost between the doctor and his Spanish-speaking patient.
Tigermoth gets to go behind the scenes to capture moments like these for our clients. Our focus with this story: Cone Health’s commitment to making sure all patients can access the care they need regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic status. As a longtime partner to Cone Health’s Office of Philanthropy, we produce fundraising communications that inform donors and the greater community about the impact Cone Health is making to support access, prevention, outstanding patient outcomes and programs that help patients manage practical barriers to care — transportation and lack of insurance, for example.
“This work is a game changer,” Wright says (above right, with patient Juan Depaz). “I’ve never been able to connect better with my faith walk than since I began delivering care in these clinics.”
Everything in his 33-year career has led him here. His time as medical director for the Congregational Nurse Program. His role as vice president of safety and quality for Cone Health. Certainly volunteering at the Weaver House Shelter, where Wright has been able to see firsthand why outcomes are poor for low-income patients.
“So much has to do with the barriers and injustices they are facing,” he says. “I realized this was my calling, so I started learning more about health care for the homeless and what others across the country had done.”
The physician making a difference leads to a gift that can transform.
During their long-distance phone calls, Wright shares his passion with his mother. He tells her stories about the patients he sees and the transformations they make.
“This one gentleman,” Wright says, shaking his head. “He was seizing in the lobby of the homeless shelter.” Wright got him stabilized and sent to the emergency department. “He had been falling off buses; everyone thought it was his alcoholism.” What they learned through further evaluation in the community care clinic was that he has chronic neurologic problems due to a cervical spine stenosis with near complete compression. “He was about to become a quadripalegic,” Wright says.
Wright got the man an appointment with an orthopedist and helped arrange for a cervical spine procedure. “We were able to get him off alcohol and treat the root cause of his pain so that he didn’t need to make repeated visits to the ED,” Wright adds.
Wright’s mother was inspired by what her son and his colleagues were providing: medication bridging, urgent care, foot care, diabetes management, blood pressure stabilization and much more to community members who would otherwise be in the ED or would forgo care altogether. She created the Ruth Helen O’Bryan Wright Endowment to develop a patient-assistance fund, create more community clinics and allow Cone Health to reach more community members where they are — medically, geographically and financially.
These are the kinds of stories we get to tell for Cone Health, and it’s work we love to do.
For Tigermoth, this is marketing with a purpose, the chance to bring together our passion for storytelling with a mission to transform the health of our community. It allows us to share in our clients’ inspiring work.
If you’re carrying out mission-driven work and need support in fundraising, storytelling and strategy, reach out to our team.
Andrea Crossley Spencer is Co-founder and Director of Creative Writing at Tigermoth Creative. Her 20-year copywriting career spans advertising agencies and higher education, with a focus on brand messaging and fundraising. A fiction writer on the side, Andrea is represented by Copps Literary Services. She teaches writing workshops to young writers in local schools.