Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires (VIM) has earned a 2021 Gold Rating from the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC) Quality Standards Program. The rating is an important affirmation of VIM’s ability to provide high quality, comprehensive health care, free of charge, to its 1,300 patients.

The mission of the NAFC is to ensure the medically underserved have access to affordable health, quality care. To quantify and qualify the care provided at the Free and Charitable Clinic network, the NAFC formalized a set of Quality Standards for member organizations. NAFC Quality Standards elements include policies and procedures related to the following areas: Administrative, Enhanced Access and Continuity of Care, Identifying and Managing Patient Population information, Planning and Managing Care, Providing Self-Care Support and Community Resources, Tracking and Coordinating Care, and Measuring and Improving Performance.

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“VIM Berkshires is able to provide the highest quality of care while simultaneously maintaining the highest quality of standards, thanks to the thousands of hours of time donated by first rate clinicians,” notes Alice Lustig, VIM board member and Chair of the organization’s Quality Assurance Committee. “We are delighted to receive this recognition from the NAFC.”

About Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires

VIM’s mission is to provide access to free, quality, comprehensive health care for income-qualified, uninsured and underinsured adults living in the Berkshire region. Its vision is a society in which everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve optimal health. VIM offers integrated medical and dental care, behavioral health services, optometry, nutrition counseling, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, exercise therapy as well as social services and financial support to its 1,300+ patients.

VIM’s impact during COVID was enormous, not only for patients but for the community as a whole. By helping to keep patients healthy, the local hospital system never became overwhelmed. By helping to keep their workforce healthy, businesses could remain productive. And, by helping to make available safe spaces for stimulation and supervision when schools were closed, adults could keep working.

VIM has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.

About the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics

The National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (NAFC) is the only nonprofit 501c(3) organization whose mission is solely focused on the issues and needs of the medically underserved throughout the nation and the more than 1,400 Free and Charitable Clinics and Pharmacies that serve them. The NAFC has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar. Founded in 2001 and headquartered near Washington, D.C., the NAFC is working to ensure that the medically underserved have access to affordable quality health care and strives to be a national voice promoting quality health care for all.

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