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‘Dr. Jim’ makes house calls to the homeless

Dr. James S. Withers, M.D., is known as simply "Dr. Jim" on the streets of Pittsburgh. For more than 20 years, the compassionate physician has been making "house calls" to those without homes, providing healthcare to individuals on street corners, in alleyways, under bridges and along river banks.

By day, Dr. Jim is an internist and teaching physician at Mercy Hospital. By night, he's helping the homeless read their blood pressure.

"I think what it boils down to is that we're in this together," Dr. Jim, 53, told ABC News last year. "We are committed to each other in a way that hopefully nobody is ever completely outside the circle of caring."

Mark Horvath recently interviewed the inspiring doctor who first coined the term "street medicine":

The documentary "One Bridge to the Next" by BeCause Foundation celebrates Dr. Jim's work with his organization Operation Safety Net. Watch the trailer here.

"In 1992, Dr. Jim Withers, an internal medicine physician, began providing medical care to Pittsburgh's unsheltered homeless population. He partnered with street-savvy formerly homeless individuals and, initially dressing as a homeless person, began to make nighttime street rounds in the alleys and under the bridges of the city," Operation Safety Net's site says of the organization's early days.

Operation Safety Net is one of America's first full-time street-medicine programs, with 16 social workers, case managers, physicians, nurses and outreach workers on staff. Dozens of volunteers also contribute to the much-needed ministry.

Operation Safety Net is more than just an on-call medical service. In the past four-and-a-half years, it has helped move 525 homeless people off the streets and into homes.

"We have not had a major problem with homelessness compared to other big cities, and Dr. Withers and his team from Mercy and Operation Safety Net are the reason why," Rich Venezia, director of Allegheny County's Bureau of Hunger and Homeless Services told Pittsburgh Magazine, "not only in terms of providing physical health care, but housing —short-term and long — the full gamut of services they provide."

Dr. Jim says the point of practising street medicine is the opposite of the indifferent, hierarchical attitude often found in the medical community. Instead, it's "I'll honour who you are and come to you."