The Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative

Retired physician Samuel A. Cassell has followed his goal to establish the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative, Inc. (BVMI), a free medical service for the uninsured based on the original model developed by retired physician Jack McConnell in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) organizations offer free medical services to the uninsured in communities all over the United States following a culture‐of‐caring philosophy, while relying heavily on the donated services of retired health care professionals. However, Cassell found that starting such a facility in wealthy Bergen County, close enough to be a suburb of New York City, was a bigger challenge than anticipated. Cassell and the BVMI board faced the problem of trying to raise funds to build a facility, only to learn that many donors would be more interested in contributing toward needed services in an organization that already had a proven track record; concerns of some area hospitals about potential duplication of efforts or unequal referrals; and concerns of local officials and suburban residents about the presence of a medical facility servicing the working poor in their business community and in their neighborhood.