Bender Division of Endodontics, Department of Dental Medicine. Project HOME’s endodontic service was inspired by Philadelphia endodontist Dr. Louis Rossman, who endorsed a domestic mission following his term as Foundation President and introduced Barnett to Project HOME. Rossman, who volunteers as a faculty member at the clinic, notes that working in the Project HOME clinic gives residents a unique learning opportunity they don’t receive anywhere else, even at school. “They’re on their own as one person, and they learn to mind the schedule,” Rossman says. “In school they don’t always learn to follow a schedule. They need to care for the people they’re working with and respect their schedules,” a lesson which is invaluable to them as future employers and colleagues. As for the patients, Rossman adds, “We’re in the poorest zip code in Pennsylvania. Our patients don’t travel out of it, they’re scared of doctors and hospitals, they don’t have
insurance, and many single parent homes with multiple kids who the parents fear will become involved with drugs or be shot.” “You don’t have to leave our own zip code to see the desperate need for our services,” Barnett observes. His program serves very much the same population as Project HOME and takes referral cases the clinic can’t treat. Until now he has provided everything the clinic needed to treat cases. When COVID interfered with the clinic’s ability to provide assistants for the residents volunteering at the clinic, Barnett rolled up his sleeves to take their place. “The grant funds don’t cover any of the other overhead costs, but we can continue to do a significant amount of pro bono procedures at the Project HOME clinic, and probably 10 times that amount for the same population here in our endo department,” Barnett adds. “In Pennsylvania, if you’re over 21, Medicaid does not cover any endo procedures at all. But we’re in this community. I do not want to not treat patients who need endodontics to save their teeth."
The Foundation’s first opportunity to learn about domestic access to care was a pilot program in 2018 in North Philadelphia. Einstein Medical Center’s Endodontic Division partnered with Project HOME, a 30-year- old nonprofit comprehensively focused on ending homelessness and alleviating poverty. With services ranging from housing and adult education to healthcare, after school, and college access, its nine-operatory dental clinic, integrated with medical care, is now fully equipped with a microscope and CBCT. More than 30 percent of residents living under the federal poverty line – twice the national average. Dr. Frederic Barnett , Chairman of the Maxwell S. Fogel Department of Dental Medicine at Einstein leads this effort. Project HOME is staffed on a part-time basis by an endodontic resident and faculty member from Einstein’s I.B.
“ We’re in the poorest zip code in Pennsylvania... You don’t have to leave our own zip code to see
the desperate need for our services. ” – Dr. Frederic Barnett
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