February 22: Dorothy Bullard

After many years of helping the healthcare community including time working at the Williamson County Health Department as the Coordinator of the Children’s Special Services program, Dorothy Bullard started working at Mercy Community Healthcare in 2010 to start the Care Coordination department. She single-handedly began calling sub-specialists all over middle Tennessee asking them to give a few appointments each month to Mercy's underserved population. After months of hard work, Dorothy created a large referral base of sub-specialists that would agree to take patients. This system is still in place today. Dorothy then researched and developed relationships with resources for patient assistance for issues like groceries, lodging, prescription medication assistance, utilities bills, etc. for patients who were in need. Dorothy initiated having Care Coordination (now called Patient + Family Support) staff become Certified Application Counselors to enable them to assist getting the population of uninsured patients on insurance coverage. She grew the Care Coordination Department to what it is today, and she pioneered this model which other Federally Qualified Health Centers now follow. Today, Dorothy is the Chief Advancement Officer at Mercy, and she is in charge of raising money to fund Mercy’s New Building Capital Campaign. Dorothy has spent her life working to help the underserved.