Shepherd’s Hope is the leading voice for the uninsured and underinsured in Central Florida raising awareness of the issues th ... ey face and providing access to free high quality, compassionate medical care. Its work also benefits the region’s business community and broader health care system by helping lower the cost of health insurance and unburdening an already strained health care system. This faith-based organization of volunteers was founded in 1997 by Dr. William S. Barnes, senior pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, as a grassroots effort to solve a community issue. Driven by the notion that “none of us knows how to do it all, but all of us know how to do some of it,” Dr. Barnes united the community to bring health care to those in need, raising critical dollars, while volunteer doctors and nurses treated patients in donated space at the Westside Vocational Technical School in Winter Garden. Shepherd’s Hope contributes directly to Central Florida’s health care economy by mitigating the financial impact to hospitals and health care providers for the services they provide to uninsured and indigent patients. The average cost of an emergency department visit in Central Florida is approximately $4,600; whereas the cost for a patient visit at a Shepherd’s Hope is the equivalent of $241. Without the option of Shepherd’s Hope, 22.3 percent of patients served in 2017 (3,820 patients) said they would otherwise be forced to seek care at an area emergency department, resulting in a cost savings of $17.6 million to the Central Florida healthcare system. read more