Blog Archives
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on TECH/TEACH
The TECH and TEACH programs at Broadlawns Medical Center were developed to provide education, training and awareness for career opportunities that exist in health care. Specifically, the TECH and TEACH programs identify candidates who are at-risk or from the underserved neighboring communities. TECH and TEACH are paid training and education programs, and participants complete the program having earned a CNA degree.
TECH and TEACH are programs for Training and Educating for a Career in Healthcare. TECH is geared for high school students, and TEACH is geared for adults. Both programs provide mentoring, professional development and training for healthcare positions ie: technicians, phlebotomists and patient access representatives. By drawing participants from underserved, neighboring communities, Broadlawns is committed to educating and employing the individuals from the neighborhoods that have the highest concentrations of unemployment and poverty.
The TECH and TEACH programs are a product of cross-department work, including administration, human resources, marketing, the hospital foundation, community outreach, physicians, and nursing staff. Broadlawns has also involved numerous external organizations in the development of the TECH and TEACH programs. Urban Dreams and iJAG have assisted greatly in identifying candidates for participation in the program. United Way of Central Iowa has provided some financial support for the TEACH initiative. Other community partners include Signature Healthcare, Des Moines Public Schools, Wesley Life, Creative Visions, Evelyn K. Davis Center, the Department of Human Services, and the Polk County Health Department.
The first group of TECH students completed their training in April 2017. Seven of the ten TECH high school students were hired by Broadlawns upon completion of the training program.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Pathways to Housing Program
JPS Health Network in Ft. Worth, Texas, partners with the Salvation Army for the Tarrant County Pathways to Housing program. The program supports medically vulnerable homeless patients by providing permanent housing rental assistance, long-term comprehensive case management, with medical and supportive services in scattered site apartments within Tarrant County. Eligible patients are high utilizers of local emergency rooms who are experiencing homelessness, medical and behavioral health challenges. Care Connections for the Homeless team provides outreach based medical care and medical case management. This medical team works in collaboration with The Salvation Army housing case managers to identify and engage program participants. Amerigroup, as the largest provider of Medicaid services in the Tarrant County area, also serves as a partner in the project to augment behavioral health supportive services and care coordination for clients.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Better Health Through Housing
The Better Health Through Housing pilot grew out of an awareness by UI Health leadership that in order to realize its Health Equity mission, they need to take on the challenge of improving the health of whole communities on the west and south sides of Chicago. UI Health is located about 2 miles from downtown Chicago on the near Westside, in the Illinois Medical District, in one of the highest concentrations of city homelessness. With six other nearby hospitals, the chronically homeless hop from one Emergency Department (ED) to another. The goals of their program are: to create a healthcare-to-housing pilot using the Housing First model; to evaluate the effect of housing on health outcomes, cost, and utilization (this includes studying homelessness as a heath condition); and to promote and advocate for more healthcare-to-housing programs in the Chicago area using a collective impact approach
UI Health pays their partner, the Center for Housing & Health (CHH) $1,000 per member per month. CHH created a housing collaborative consisting of over twenty housing agencies that manage 125-150 one-bedroom apartments scattered throughout the city, as well as three single room occupancy (SRO) facilities that serve as bridge units until permanent supportive housing is located. The agencies work with individual landlords that accept and tolerate patients with mental illness and/or substance abuse. There are two program staff: The Program Director and a Care Coordinator, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes working with the homeless. UI forecasts this will provide housing for between 20-30 chronically homeless patients for a year (last year’s program referred 27 homeless individuals). Identification and referral of homeless patients takes a considerable amount of care coordination, not only internally but with community-based partners. In order to strike a balance between healthcare utilization and medical vulnerability, the program utilizes a “Tumor Board” multidisciplinary team consisting of ED, oncology and psychiatry social workers, ED and psychiatry attending physicians, as well as a CHH program coordinator and an Outreach Worker who locates the patients on the street once they are referred into the program. The program consists of $250,000 of internal annual funding (a combination of both operational and philanthropic dollars).
As a result of the program internal healthcare costs have come down 21% (removing one patient in end-of-life care and the reduction is 67%), ED utilization is down 45% and inpatient admissions have been reduced by 55%. UI Health has also begun identifying the homeless in their patient population, and since 2008 have found over 1,300 homeless patients.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Social Needs Screening and Interventions
The Promotora and African American Health Conductor programs were initially birthed at our Bay Point Family Health Center in 2002 and 2005. The initial goal of these programs was to create more effective cultural bridges between Contra Costa Health Services, a county-run health system, and the Latino and African American communities through the utilization of indigenous community representatives in order to assist the populations in better utilizing and navigating the Contra Costa Health Services system of care. The core functions of these two programs included: assisting patients with health navigation, community health education, assisting with group medical visits and conducting community outreach. In July 2016 through a collaboration with Health Leads (a nationally recognized resource linkage organization) some of these staff were trained on the Health Leads REACH tool – a very sophisticated resource linkage software tool which allowed these staff to screen patients for social needs, input patient demographic data, link patients to appropriate resources and agencies, track actions and follow up on each patient assisted, and measure impact.
Contra Costa Health Services partners with a community non -profit, the Center for Human Development to employ and oversee these staff. However, the staff receive direct supervision from two Health Services staff. The contract with the non-profit is primarily funded through the Health Services budget with supplementation from Medicaid revenue generated by the staff, as well as occasional grants. The two programs are housed in five of the 11 Contra Costa Health Services health centers. They work closely with health center administrative leadership, with medical providers, with our Health Leads advocate partners and with many community based organizations.
From July 11, 2016 – April 14, 2017, The West County Health Center Health Leads pilot program has served over 750 patients with a 86-91% linkage connection success rate – according to Health leads one of the highest in the country. The Promotoras and Health Conductors have assisted over 2,000 households with health navigation, and conducted over 7,791 community outreach encounters.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Mobile Palliative Care Homeless Outreach Program
Harborview Medical Center joined with the Seattle/King County Health Care for the Homeless Network to pilot the Mobile Palliative Care Homeless Outreach Program beginning in 2014, to address the needs of homeless people with life-limiting illnesses. The program’s primary goals are: 1) provide end-of-life care and pain management to a population that is poorly served by traditional palliative care programs; 2) empower people who are homeless by giving them more control to make decisions about life management and dying as their illness progresses; 3) prevent unnecessary emergency department visits and prolonged hospital admissions; and 4) eliminate barriers to accessing healthcare by traveling to patients and meeting them on the streets, in shelters, at meal programs or wherever they are living.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Guns Down, Life Up
Gun violence is a serious public health crisis in New York City. Not only are thousands of lives lost to gun violence every year, but it is also the leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 13-24 in NYC. To address this issue, NYC Health + Hospitals implemented Guns Down, Life Up (GDLU). The goal of GDLU is to reduce violent injuries among young people, ages 11-18, so they never end up as trauma patients in hospital facilities. To achieve this, the program has three main components.
- Prevention: engaging youth early in long-term mentorship and developmental activities to divert them from involvement with violent peer groups and behaviors.
- Community Mobilization: engaging with concerned organizations and neighborhood residents to build community strategies to reduce neighborhood violence.
- Intervention: immediately engaging with people who have been violently injured to prevent retaliation and provide counsel and support.
NYC H+H works with many partners on GDLU, including local schools, Cure Violence programs across the city, the Bronx Documentary Center, and other local vendors and community-based organizations to share resources and activities.
By Jamie Cetrone | Categories: | Comments Off on Preventive Food Pantry
Boston Medical Center (BMC) created its Preventive Food Pantry in October 2001 to address hunger-related illnesses and malnutrition among its low-income patient population. Shortly before the Pantry’s opening, a survey found that 1 in every 10 families served at BMC did not know where their next meal was coming from. The Pantry first served Pediatrics and the Women’s Center, as children and pregnant moms were the target population. The other clinical areas were gradually added over a five-year period. It now serves patients from all departments at BMC who have a physician’s referral, a prescription for supplemental food that best promote physical health, prevent future illness, and facilitate recovery.
Striving solely on philanthropy, the Food Pantry provides food to approximately 7,000 people per month. It is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and families can visit twice per month. They receive three to four days’ worth of food each visit, based on their household sizes and dietary restrictions. A key feature is the provision of perishable foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, milk, cheese and eggs – items that are costly and therefore often lacking in a low-income family’s diet.
The Pantry works closely with the Greater Boston Food Bank, receiving an average of 15,000 pounds of food each week. It also benefits from partnerships with companies, local schools, churches and temples that donate food.
Recipient of the 2012 James W. Varnum National Quality Health Care Award, BMC’s food pantry has helped change the lives of many patients and families in a personal and dignified manner. This is evident in the pantry receiving a satisfaction rate of over 90 percent by its clients over the course of its existence.
