Blog Archives
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Feed1st Program
In 2010, a group of University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine medical students, University of Chicago faculty, and Comer Children’s Hospital staff started the Feed1st program after one of the hospital Chaplains discovered many parents were going hungry at their child’s bedside during a hospital stay. The goal of the Feed1st program is to address hunger in the healthcare setting and minimize the stigma surrounding food insecurity.
The Feed1st program operates 11 food pantry sites throughout UChicago Medicine’s facilities, including the adult, pediatric, inpatient, and outpatient areas of academic health system’s South Side medical campus. The pantry sites are strategically located in emergency departments, patient waiting areas, family lounges, and a hospital retail cafeteria. The program primarily serves community members from the South Side of Chicago, which has some of the highest food insecurity rates in the city; however, the pantry sites are available to everyone in the UChicago Medicine community, including staff.
It takes a village to operate a hospital pantry program at this scale. The hospital and individual departments provide Feed1st with funding support and space for pantry shelves and storages; Clinical staff champions, medical students, undergraduates, and other volunteers keep the pantry sites and storages stocked regularly and well maintained.
The food in the pantry sites is provided by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The UChicago Medicine Garden Committee also provides fresh produce during harvest seasons throughout the year. The Feed1st Community Advisory Committee, comprised of parents, patients, concerned community members, hospital administrators, faculty, students, and others, plays a consistent role in ensuring the program meets the needs of the people we serve. Feed1st engages clinical staff in individual departments to help monitor and restock pantry shelves and communicate with patients about the program.
the Feed1st program had distributed more than 94 tons of food to more than 88,000 people since opening in 2010. The UChicago Medicine Garden Committee has provided more than 6,000 pounds of fresh produce to the Feed1st pantry sites since May 2022. The Feed1st program also released a toolkit on how to launch a no questions asked food pantry system. To read the newest version of the Feed1st toolkit, click here.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on The Teaching Kitchen
Boston Medical Center’s (BMC’s) Teaching Kitchen is a leader in the Food is Medicine movement. One of the country’s first hospital-based culinary medicine programs, the kitchen has expanded to the local food system through partnerships with food growers, makers, and retailers. The Teaching Kitchen also helps combat nutrition-related health disparities by enhancing access to fresh produce and medically tailored foods, targeting behavior change to improve health outcomes, and leading research and best practices to enhance the field. The Teaching Kitchen supports BMC’s mission to deliver exceptional care without exception.
As the largest level I trauma center and safety net hospital in the Northeast, BMC serves a community that is racially diverse—45 percent non-Hispanic white or other, 25 percent Black, 20 percent Latino, 10 percent Asian—and under-resourced, with 72 percent of patients reported as low-income. The Teaching Kitchen is clinically integrated into the medical care model, serving pediatric and adult patients through prevention and disease management, and offers programming to staff, affiliated students, and the greater Boston community. The program is funded through philanthropy and operated by a manager who oversees culinary dietitians and partners with the senior manager to implement research and population health initiatives. Managers report to the senior director of support services, and operational costs are embedded within the department’s budget.
The Teaching Kitchen is an ancillary service to the health system, partnering with departments including outpatient nutrition, endocrinology, cardiology, and pediatrics to facilitate shared medical appointments and group visits. These partnerships enhance care through hands-on learning and peer support. In addition, the Teaching Kitchen partners with community organizations like Nubian Markets and the South End Community Health Center to offer services in community settings and foster community-led programs and interventions. To encourage innovation and future practice, the Teaching Kitchen also partners with Boston University to provide medical, dietetic, and dental students with culinary nutrition training and a formal elective through the School of Gastronomy.
The Teaching Kitchen offers an average of 300 classes per year for more than 2,000 patients and staff. Classes are held in-person classes, virtually through Zoom, or a combination of both. Class surveys suggest high approval rates, and reports indicate improved dietary patterns, culinary skills, and overall health. The Teaching Kitchen already has facilitated clinical trials, and results will be published.
To learn more about BMC’s Teaching Kitchen, please visit this link.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Project Outreach and Prevention (POP) on Youth Violence
The mission of Project Outreach and Prevention (POP) on Youth Violence is to prevent and alleviate youth violence, while inspiring healthy lifestyles, positive behaviors, and accessible career opportunities. The program provides outreach services, educational seminars, as well as college and career readiness opportunities for local youth. Through partnership with community organizations, POP creates a safe, fulfilling and academically enriching environment for teens at risk.
POP is rooted in four pillars: public health awareness, violence prevention, health professions enrichment, and intervention. The organization partners with Methodist’s outreach program, the Methodist ED/trauma department, Vituity ER Group, local law enforcement in four different districts, and other local partners to educate local teens on gun safety, provide mental health resources, offer career guidance, and more.
POP interacts with local teens in five local schools and provides crisis intervention business cards to all youth seen in the emergency department at Methodist Hospitals. The cards list conflict resolution principles and include the website for Students Against Violence Everywhere, a youth-led violence prevention initiative, as well as a crisis QR code with resources on mental health, violence prevention, and bullying. For more information visit https://poponviolence.org/
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Violence Intervention Program
The rate of gun violence–related injuries is increasing nationwide and is especially high among youth in Atrium Health’s community. Survivors of gun violence experience significant increases in mental health disorders and high pain, resulting in higher rates of readmissions. Along with adverse effects on survivors, the health system experiences a large financial burden stemming from violent injuries. Atrium Health’s violence intervention program aims to help victims of violent injuries target social determinants of health and make positive life changes to prevent violent injuries.
The program aims to assist patients ages 15–24 years old with violence-related injuries. When patients arrive at the hospital, a violence intervention specialist interviews them to assess social circumstances. The specialist will assist with urgent needs and then create long-term plans for connecting patients with community resources to assist with persistent problems. The program follows patients after discharge for three months or longer if needed. The City of Charlotte is the main partner and funding agency for this program.
Beyond the City of Charlotte, Atrium Health works with numerous internal and external partners. Internally, the program uses tools already created by Atrium Health’s other violence prevention programs, the Domestic Violence Healthcare Project and Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention. Externally, the program often refers patients to the Urban League of Charlotte, an employment assistance program for African American men.
Since January 2022, the program has connected 23 people with job readiness services, employment placement, and secondary education. Patients also sought assistance improving access to housing, food, and clothing.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Sustainability Program
University of California (UC) Davis Health recognizes the importance of creating a resilient and sustainable health care model that celebrates the intersection between human and climate health. The goal of UC Davis Health’s sustainability practices is to reduce the health system’s environmental footprint by identifying climate mitigation strategies that meet the needs of patients and employees while preserving the quality of care. Areas of focus include procurement, resource conservation, transportation, expanding outreach and education to increase participation in sustainability efforts, waste reduction, and accountability.
UC Davis Health’s sustainability efforts reach beyond the health system into the community. With a focus on clean energy, the health system is expanding its solar energy portfolio and reducing energy usage in the operating rooms by replacing lights with LED bulbs and implementing HVAC setbacks. Another focus is reducing water use through operational adjustments in the central plant and a turf watering reduction initiative that stopped irrigating non-functional turfs on campus. The health system also provides an emission-free bus service, Causeway Connection, that runs daily between the hospital’s main campus and Sacramento.
UC Davis Health has multiple partners, including the Sacramento Tree Foundation, which helps plan California drought tolerant landscaping throughout the health system’s campus. Other partnerships, such as Copia, a food recovery company, and California Safe Soil, a manufacturer that uses food scraps for high-quality fertilizer, help divert UC Davis Health’s food waste. A partnership with Stryker, a medical technologies corporation, has helped the health system reduce the number of single-use devices used in operating rooms.
UC Davis Health has seen invaluable outcomes from the sustainability strategies. Through HVAC setbacks in the operating rooms, the emissions saved thus far are equivalent to taking 63 cars off the road. Through operational adjustments in the system’s central plant, UC Davis Health saved three million gallons of water between 2020 and 2022.
https://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/goals
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Sustainability Program
The Ohio State University has been working on a sustainability program for decades. In 2015, formal goals were set to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and a number of other resource stewardship goals to achieve by 2025: increasing locally sourced food, increasing ecosystem services, reducing potable water consumption, reaching zero waste, increasing energy efficiency, and developing standards for preferred products. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center developed a formal program around 2017, and then joined the Health Care Climate Council and the Health Care Climate Challenge in 2020 to support its sustainability goals.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is implementing multiple sustainability strategies through a small team of dedicated employees. The sustainability program encompasses all medical center facilities and integrates the university resource stewardship goals into all we do such as obtaining supplies, diverting waste, and tracking energy use with smart meters that can obtain real-time data on utility usage throughout the buildings. The medical center also prioritizes sustainability in the operating room by switching to a lower greenhouse gas emissions alternative anesthesia and incorporating low-flow strategies and diverting clinical plastics. The medical center has purchases a bedpan made of 90 percent recycled materials, integrated through their sustainable procurement guidelines.
The Ohio State University partners with ENGIE North America, a commercial electricity provider, and Axium, a manager of infrastructure assets to increase energy efficiency. In fiscal year 2022, all medical center-owned buildings decreased energy use intensity by 4.7 percent from fiscal year 2020 and approximately 29 percent of the electricity supplied to the medical center at main campus and off-site medical center locations was carbon neutral with renewable energy credits. OSU also has adapted the College of Medicine’s curriculum to include sustainability education.
Through green building efforts, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is recycling 98 percent of the waste materials from an under-construction inpatient hospital. The smart meters installed in the buildings have helped the sustainability team identify reduction strategies, culminating in a 5 percent reduction from fiscal year 2020.The medical center has reduced desflurane in the operating room by 48 percent, resulting in nearly $300,000 in cost savings over three years.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Reusable Isolation Gowns
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles, employs more than 4,000 people and cares for 380,000 patients per year. As part of precaution protocol, every person entering a person’s room must wear an isolation gown. In 2012, the medical center used an average of 6,000 disposable isolation gowns per day, or 2.2 million gowns per year, and the academic and health care teams piloted a reusable isolation gowns program.
The program started as a pilot in the medical center’s largest and busiest and later expanded to other units gradually to avoid overwhelming staff. staff through flyers and meetings, emphasizing the increased protection the new reusable gowns offered. Unit leaders and the Linen Committee were integral in the transition and maintenance of the program.
Internally, the process required collaboration from nursing staff, unit directors, and infection control staff. Externally, program staff worked with multiple gown vendors to design a custom gown, as well as with vendors that fold, launder, and transfer gowns.
As of November 2015, the hospital has used more than 3.3 million reusable gowns, saved more than $1.1 million in purchasing costs, and diverted from the landfill.
Read the Case Study here.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Diabetes Prevention Program
More than one-third of Rhode Islanders are prediabetic. In 2017, the Lifespan Community Health Institute, as part of Rhode Island Hospital, partnered with the City of Providence’s Healthy Communities Office to deliver the Diabetes Prevention Program to Providence residents. Since then, the program has grown and targets all eligible Rhode Island residents. The Diabetes Prevention Program, an evidence-based program, teaches people at risk for developing diabetes how to implement a healthy lifestyle with the goal of preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. The program is available in English and Spanish and offered to participants at no cost.
Currently, the Lifespan Community Health Institute (LCHI) contracts with the Rhode Island Department of Health to deliver the Diabetes Prevention Program to all eligible Rhode Island residents. Free to participants, the program offers weekly one-hour sessions with a trained lifestyle coach to learn and maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors, peer support, healthy at-home meal recipes, and childcare and transportation assistance. Additionally, LCHI currently contracts with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island to offer the program to eligible State of Rhode employees and their beneficiaries. Learn if you qualify here.
The Lifespan Community Health Institute is one of only two CDC Recognized Organizations offering the Diabetes Prevention Program in Rhode Island that has achieved Full Plus recognition. Full Plus recognition means that a program has demonstrated effectiveness by achieving all of the performance criteria related to the Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program Standards and Operating procedures.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Health Equity Accelerator
The Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center (BMC) originated from research and development after COVID-19 highlighted multiple health inequities that would not have been uncovered in normal conditions. These discoveries, paired with BMC’s historical interest in closing the health equity gap, fuel the Health Equity Accelerator. The program’s goal is to drive racial health equity in the areas of pregnancy, infectious diseases, behavioral health, chronic conditions, and oncology and end-stage renal disease, with a vision to transform health care to deliver health justice and well-being.
The Health Equity Accelerator incorporates three foundations of health care: research, clinical care, and community, including social determinants of health (SDOH). The Accelerator team consists of executive leadership, project managers and analysts, community navigators, and research experts. This team breaks problems down into core elements and, through research and evaluation, identifies and implements innovations to combat the problem. The team will partner with community leaders to seek insight on how well those solutions and interventions affect the target issues. The program aims to serve patients and their communities, specifically those of color, that face immense health inequities.
The Health Equity Accelerator’s strategy aims to promote four pillars to collaborate and complement each other in the mission. These groups include clinical operations, community and SDOH, research and evaluation, and policy and advocacy. The Accelerator team also identifies external partners interested in participating in interventions to help communities BMC and other health institutions share.
The Accelerator’s Equity in Pregnancy program focuses on improving the rate of severe maternal morbidity for mothers of color and the rate of babies of color born small for gestational age. Through research, the program identified gaps and developed recommendations that will help close those gaps. Another project focused on empowering people of color, who were at a higher risk for disease transmission, to make informed decisions regarding COVID-19 vaccinations.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Fresh for You Market
Eskenazi Health has a strong belief in the concept of food as medicine, a pillar of the health system’s Beyond Barriers campaign. In Indianapolis, 41 percent of children younger than age 5 suffer from malnutrition, and in Marion County, 21 percent of residents live in a food desert. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 200,000 county residents identified as food insecure. Through the Fresh for You Market and the Fresh for You Market on Wheels, Eskenazi Health is combating food insecurity in the community and providing residents with access to nutritional and affordable food.
The Fresh for You Market, a grocery store and food pantry, is located on the Eskenazi Health downtown campus on a bus route easily accessible to the community. The self-sustaining Market is open to the public, and proceeds from sales directly fund the Fresh for You Market voucher program. This program provides patients who screen positive for food insecurity during clinic visits with free food vouchers to shop at the market. The Fresh for You Market on Wheels is a mobile version of the market that parks at a different location throughout Indianapolis each weekday. A nutrition navigator on board helps patients pick foods for specific diets and conditions, and a chef prepares hot meals and hosts cooking demonstrations.
The Fresh for You Market and Market on Wheels would not be possible without community partners. The downtown market partners with a local food bank, and the market on wheels partners with local produce vendors, public transportation, the Indiana Department of Health, and other government agencies.
Since opening in June 2017, the Fresh for You Market has been a key food resource for patients, residents, and health system staff. In the first full year of operation, the Market served 6,200 people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the market opened to health system employees working long hours who were unable to make it to the grocery store. The Fresh for You Market on Wheels, launched in July 2023, is making its way to for access to food in a social needs screening.
