Access to All

Congratulations Angelica Diaz!

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:34:00 GMT

Congratulations to our own Angelica Diaz, CHP’s Women’s Health Program Coordinator and Health Educator on receiving a honorable mention recognition from the American Public Health Association (APHA) for her abstract “Access to breast cancer screening through a community based mammography program among underserved women in Santa Clara, CA.” Not only does this abstract highlight the life-saving work of our Women’s Health Program, but it punctuates the talent of our staff at CHP!

If you’re at the APHA conference in San Francisco this week, come to her session! Details below:

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 : 12:30 PM - 12:50 PM
Angelica Diaz, MPH(c), Women's Health Partnership, Community Health Partnership, Santa Clara, CA
Elena Alcala, MPH, Women's Health Partnership, Community Health Partnership, Santa Clara, CA
Linda Pham Chuang, MPH, CHES , Women's Health Partnership, Community Health Partnership, Santa Clara, CA
Maripaz Nazareno, RN, Women's Health Partnership, Community Health Partnership, Santa Clara, CA

Introduction:
The Community Health Partnership (CHP) sought to increase access to mammography screening and reduce late stage breast cancer diagnosis among underserved women in the county of Santa Clara, CA through its Community Mammography Access Project (CMAP). This project is based on a centralized community-based medical model linking community health centers (CHC) within consortium to a mobile mammography unit. The CMAP delivery model includes three key partners: CHP, a network of CHCs, and St. Joseph's Medical Center Mobile Mammography Program.

Methods:
The mobile unit rotates among CHCs and local sites where underserved women age 35 and older are linked to breast screening services. Through CHC in-reach, women are recruited for these full-day CMAP breast cancer screening events. Outreach occurs through Patient Navigators who recruit women to breast health education workshops where they are linked to the CMAP events. Women receive one on one support from Patient Navigators to identify resources, navigate the health care system, address cultural barriers, and establish a medical home.

Results:
Uninsured women are referred to CMAP's self-pay program to receive a free mammography. This community-based mobile unit strategy proved beneficial in increasing the number of women receiving breast screening. CMAP is a best practice model in prevention and wellness across the lifespan with the support of partners that are geographically located where underserved women live, are trusted by the community, and are able to address cultural and linguistic barriers. CMAP remains the only county-wide community mobile mammography resource working in collaboration with CHCs in the area.

Community Health Centers and Clinics- Strength in Numbers!

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:27:00 GMT

I know it’s been awhile since we’ve visited this blog space, but I feel as if our comeback is quite timely! We just updated our member health organization contact list to reflect the new sites our health centers have opened this past year, and it’s my pleasure to share it with you. This new list is available for download. As you scroll through the list, you’ll see we represent 11 non-profit community health organizations with a total of 41 sites in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Last week, my colleagues and I attended the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) Annual Conference. What an incredible experience! This conference assembled community clinics and health center (CCHC) leadership, staff, and patients from all over California, representing over 800 sites. This year’s theme: Boldly Moving Forward.

One day, as I walked through the conference’s crowded Exhibit Hall, I thought about how huge we are as an association. I also thought about the upcoming election, and how as community health center and clinic advocates, we have so much at stake.

Both CPCA and our national association NACHC have been doing a fantastic job getting all of us on the same page about one of the most important practices in health care advocacy…registering our patients and community members to vote. Encouraging people to vote is another impactful way community health centers empower patients to be advocates for not only their own health, but the health of their families and communities. Imagine our strength in numbers!

We all have to do our part. October 22 is the registration deadline to be able to vote in the November election. If you haven’t registered, or know someone who needs to, California now offers online voter registration.

One of our member health organizations, Ravenswood Family Health Center recently produced a video for NACHC’s National Health Center Week Video contest that highlights the importance of patient involvement and voting. They’ve been more than doing their part, also offering voter registration in their clinic lobby. Perhaps I’m a little biased, but I love this video. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Two More Advocates!

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:19:00 GMT

Happy Holidays! I hope you’re reading this from a comfy couch at home or somewhere pleasant on vacation. If you’re reading from your work station, don’t feel alone! It’s ok, because our Partnership office is open too. It feels good to be with my work family, though I’m missing two individuals in particular today- Joseph and Son.

Joseph and Son were the Partnership’s undergraduate interns during this past fall semester. They completed their service last week. Joseph, a student in his senior year came to us via the Communication Studies department in hopes of obtaining communications experience. Son arrived from the university’s prestigious Health Science department, seeking health policy research experience for his final semester. I am grateful to them both for all their help these past few months. In addition to all their internship duties, too countless to name, Son and Joseph were key to the success of our awards event for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and assisted with the Partnership’s contribution towards the recently published Santa Clara County Vietnamese Health Assessment.

Over the summer, on this blog I posted a report written by another former intern Steve Yang, about community health centers. This gave me the idea to invite Joseph and Son to write an entry for the blog. Their creative task: to share something they’ve learned during their time here at the Partnership. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work alongside these star students; their intellectual curiosity and willingness to learn is inspiring. We are very fortunate to have them as the next generation of health care advocates.

Here are their entries:

Joseph Barton
Communication Studies, San Jose State University

I just had the most amazingly eye-opening semester this past fall. My name is Joseph Barton and I’m a Communication Studies senior at San Jose State University who recently completed a very cool internship at Community Health Partnership. I hate to admit it, as I am in my thirties and have voted regularly since I was eighteen, but I knew little about our existing health care system and the upcoming reforms prior to this semester. Not anymore! The team at CHP took a student looking to possibly get into public relations or maybe marketing, and turned him into someone who actively supports and advocates for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and would now love to work in health care. I’ve learned that community health centers (CHCs) are the backbone of health care in our country today, and I’m very proud to have been involved with CHP. I think everyone who puts their heart and soul into working for a community health center should be extremely proud, too! You guys have gotten so good at doing outreach, connecting people with necessary services, providing care for those who need it most, and being such a valued and important piece of society, that our country’s leaders are basically taking what you’ve done and expanding it to millions of people with the ACA…Bravo!

There is obviously still much work to be done, as the changes that lie ahead won’t necessarily be easy. But I believe the Supreme Court will uphold the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Individual Mandate and our country will continue in the right direction and ultimately be better equipped to provide the quality health care that everyone deserves. I’m looking to be a part of that now, for sure! But no matter where my career takes me in the future, I will now always vote and advocate as someone now hooked… my eyes are wide open and I’ll forever be a proud supporter of CHCs!

Son Phan
Health Science, San Jose State University

Before I took this internship, I didn’t really see community health centers (CHCs) as places that provided comprehensive and effective care. I always thought it was much better to just go to a hospital or a local doctor’s office to receive care. This is due to the fact that CHCs are located in low-income areas and I felt like they were not as equipped to take care of me. After being an intern at Community Health Partnership, my whole view has changed and I recognize how important CHCs are to the health of our whole nation.

CHCs provide comprehensive and preventative care. This is important because, as proven in several studies, the presence of a community health center in a region has shown to reduce the number of emergency room visits and long-term chronic health problems. If those two problems are reduced, it will save the U.S. a lot of money that we can spend on other things such as education. In fact, about $122 billion in total health care costs would be saved between 2010 and 2015 by CHC’s because of their ability to help reduce costly care such as emergency room visits and their ability to provide care at lower costs. Additionally, with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it is expected that 32 million more Americans will be provided with health insurance. That is why CHCs play a major role in helping to deliver more efficient care for society by taking on some of the newly insured patients.

Community health centers are important as we move forward with healthcare reform. If we want to provide efficient and quality care for every single individual, CHCs must be in the equation. They provide quality care that could prevent future health problems. Best of all, they are able to do this at a much lower cost. We must continue to provide funding to community health centers and give them the necessary resources to succeed.

The Three Es of E-Advocacy

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:37:00 GMT

As the year comes to a close, here at the Partnership, we’re already looking to 2012, and planning our communications and advocacy activities. As I’m trying to chart out the year ahead, I find myself reflecting upon our communication and advocacy efforts this past year. What are my lessons learned? What advice would I give to others? I then think back to the social media panel I participated in at NACHC’s Financial, Operations, Management, and Information Technology Conference in November. A few weeks ago, I gave a recap on the panel, and summarized the great advice my fellow community health center advocates shared for successful social media campaigns. I’m taking all of their suggestions to heart, as one of my resolutions is to be more active with my “e-advocacy.”

When I joined Community Health Partnership last year, I did a lot of thinking about my new responsibility as the Health Policy Specialist for our organization. Walking in, I inherited a department that hadn’t been staffed in awhile, a Facebook account with sporadic posts and a mysterious Twitter account with 2 tweets and 3 followers. While it felt exciting to start anew, I wanted to be thoughtful in my approach. Does it make sense for a health center consortium organization to be on social media?

I talked this issue through with my CEO and colleagues, and came to the following conclusion. Considering that advocacy is a cornerstone of Community Health Partnership’s mission, and that communication is a vital component of advocacy, it’s important to have a presence where people communicate and share information…on social media.

Communicate and share information…with whom? “Who is your audience?” I could hear one of my Communication Studies professors say. My co-panelist, Micah Clemens Assistant Director of Communications at NACHC pointed out that there are now approximately 800 million people on Facebook, and half of them log in every day. There are 175 million accounts on Twitter. I would venture to guess that at least a handful of those folks (maybe people you know?) are people who care about access to affordable health care. Perhaps another handful work or have worked at a free clinic or community health center. And maybe, just maybe, those two handfuls have other handfuls of friends who are willing to listen. Your communication, your message on social media has the potential to spread and grow in scale.

But when you’re starting out, “who is your audience”? My other co-panelist Aldon Hynes, Social Media Manager for Community Health Center, Inc. in Connecticut would answer: “anyone who will read, listen, and share your message.” It’s as simple as that. There are a few guidelines in starting out and crafting your messages, of course. However, I think it’s important not to get too hung up on this matter. In this political climate, anyone willing to read, listen, and share a message is an audience member I will gladly welcome! The more folks are educated about health access issues and community health centers, the more likely they are to take action.

So, what are my lessons learned? What advice would I give to others? Well, I would take a cue from my colleague Pedro Toledo, Director of Community and Government Affairs at Redwood Community Health Coalition and offer that it’s important to have a good social media policy in place for yourself and staff. Having agreed upon boundaries is important when dealing with such a dynamic communication tool. Think of it as like establishing “ground rules” at the beginning of a retreat or meeting. NACHC has a great template online and the Mayo Clinic has an incredibly helpful website devoted to social media in health care settings.

I’ve also learned that our most effective messages have incorporated the “3 Es of E-Advocacy.” The three Es are: education, empowerment, and engagement. It’s not always possible to include all three Es in every message, but I find our messages on Facebook and Twitter are shared and “liked” more often when I think about the 3Es. With each post, I try to consider: how does this update educate our audience about the Partnership’s advocacy issues? Does this message empower folks to act? Is this piece of communication engaging, inviting community response?

It’s difficult to be perfect 100% of the time with one’s communication efforts, but I would like to believe that it’s more important to be present and out there with your message than remaining silent. The work that we do as health advocates is too important.

What are your tips for “e-advocacy”? Please feel free to share…I would love to hear from you!

Rethinking the Role of Social Media in FQHCs

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:59:00 GMT

This week, I attended NACHC’s Financial, Operations Management, Information Technology Conference to speak at a social media panel titled “Rethinking the Role of Social Media in FQHCs (Federally Qualified Health Centers).” The panel was initiated by Aldon Hynes, Social Media Manager for CHC, Inc., an FQHC in Connecticut, and the speakers included Aldon, myself, Pedro Toledo, Director of Community and Government Affairs at the Redwood Community Health Coalition, and Micah Clemens, Assistant Director of Communications at NACHC. As speakers, our goal was to share best practices with health centers about developing good social media campaigns. I learned quite a lot from my fellow panelists.

As the Social Media Manager for Community Health Center, Inc. in Connecticut, Aldon’s advice was to have clear goals that are tied to your organization’s mission, know your audience, and to develop a strong narrative that includes getting your staff and providers involved.

Pedro shared Redwood Community Health Coalition’s success on Twitter. He found Twitter to be a valuable tool for not only sharing professional news and information, but also for reaching out to the media and government officials. Though being on social media is a great way to get your health center’s message out, he stressed the importance of having social media policies in place for staff, so they have clear guidelines about what’s appropriate.

Micah from NACHC stressed the importance of having a presence on Facebook. He pointed out that there are now approximately 800 million people on Facebook, and half of them log in every day. Considering that each user has an average of 130 friends, getting a user to share your health center’s message scales considerably.

This is all great advice. Next week, I’ll go into more detail about what we talked about, and my presentation. If you’re curious to hear more before then, you can check out the conference tweets by going to Twitter and searching #CHCFOM.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren: Community Health Advocate

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:25:00 GMT

Last week, Community Health Partnership with one of our member health centers Gardner Family Health Network presented Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren with the National Association of Community Health Centers’ (NACHC) Community Health Advocate Award. NACHC bestows this recognition upon members of Congress who have shown exceptional leadership in preserving, strengthening, and expanding access to America’s health centers. For those of us in Santa Clara Valley, it’s no secret that Representative Lofgren is a champion of community health centers.

Therefore, we thought it would be fitting for us to present her with the award at the site of Gardner’s future clinic, the Gardner Downtown Health Center. The site holds special significance, as it will bring primary care services back to the downtown San Jose community, since the closing of the neighborhood’s only hospital in 2004. Thanks to a partnership between Gardner and the County of Santa Clara, the health center will serve 3000 new patients when it opens in early 2012.

Community members, patient advocates, members of the Coalition for a Downtown Hospital, and other elected officials took the awards ceremony as an opportunity to thank the Congresswoman for supporting health centers, opposing cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, and her commitment to preserving safety net programs. Thought we would share our photos of the event with you: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.273595672681728.64549.149558571752106&type=1&l=79821a0949

Bill ideas, anyone?

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:45:00 GMT

A few months ago, I got accepted as a fellow in the Women’s Policy Institute (WPI), a program of the Women’s Foundation of California that is dedicated to training women on how to do public policy work in the backdrop of our state’s capitol, Sacramento. The training program draws from the “learn by doing” model, placing people in teams to develop and implement a policy advocacy project in an area or issue of interest. Considering that Community Health Partnership’s mission is to advocate for affordable and accessible health care for all, participating in the WPI is a golden opportunity to enhance my skills as a health policy specialist.

Last week, I attended my first learning retreat. Lead by Marj Plumb, Director of the WPI my class of 35 participants benefitted from a Civics 101 refresher course, policy research trainings, and networking events with policy experts and legislators. In this class, there are 7 teams that will handle an array of issues affecting women: community health, criminal justice, economic justice, environmental justice, healthy youth development, reproductive justice, and health reform implementation.

I was excited to meet my mentor Yali Bair and colleagues on the Health Reform Implementation team. We all hail from different parts of California and work in various advocacy spheres. So far, we’ve all agreed that the legislative advocacy strategy we would like to pursue is writing a bill. Though many of us have lead and coordinated advocacy campaigns, we would like to get experience in “starting from the ground up,” writing our own bill and working towards getting it passed. We spent quite a bit of time last week brushing up on the various provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and researching how we can possibly strengthen its implementation in California.

If you could pass a bill into law, what would it be? How would you strengthen or change health reform, if you could? Do you have any suggestions for my team? Needless to say, we can’t use everyone’s ideas, but we would sure enjoy hearing from you. Hit us up over here, or email me at policy@chpscc.org. I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this video that used to air with my Saturday morning cartoons.

Why ask Why? QI!

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:12:00 GMT

It’s my pleasure to introduce Reena Gadhia, RN, MPH, Community Health Partnership’s Quality Improvement Program Manager as this week’s guest blogger! Community Health Partnership’s Quality Improvement (QI) team assists our member health centers and clinics with improving access to specialty care, preparing them for Patient Centered Medical Home accreditation, as well as providing other types of assistance and training. Our Quality Improvement activities are an essential component for realizing our mission. In partnership with our member health centers, we are able to build upon successful practices and streamline systems. This critical work improves health care delivery and cost, thereby affirming our commitment to advocating for affordable, accessible, and patient centered care for all.

Hi everyone! I am excited to guest blog for Grace-Sonia today, who is away at the prestigious Women’s Policy Institute this week! My role at Community Health Partnership is as the Quality Improvement Program Manager. This means that I work with our member health centers’ Quality Improvement clinic staff and managers to collect and examine data on clinical and process measures, facilitate learning and workgroup opportunities, and identify upcoming training needs.

So, what is Quality Improvement and why is it important? Quality Improvement, or QI, looks at the ‘how’ behind the ‘what’ and tries to make ‘what’ we do better.

At Community Health Partnership, we work with our member clinics to identify issues that they are facing in daily workflows, help them implement federal changes, and introduce to them new practices that may help improve their clinic work. We also collaborate with our member clinics to provide them with the resources, tools, and opportunities to make the changes that they would like to see. This assistance includes trainings, analyses of data, facilitating groups around particularly sticky topics, etc. For example, one project that some of our clinics are involved in aims to ensure that diabetic patients older than age 55 receive standardized tests, medications proven to minimize complications of their condition, and lifestyle education. In QI, we receive data from the clinics on how many people are actually receiving these medications and education, and how their test results look – that is the ‘what’. But to understand deeper, QI takes the data and asks, for example: is there a larger focus on some health education topics and not on others? Why do more people seem to have their diabetes in control than last month? What processes are in place to make sure that these medicines get prescribed and patients receive the necessary health education? These questions, and many others like them, make up the ‘how’ of QI work. Understanding the activities behind the ‘numbers’ directly translates to patient care, as this information tells us where changes need to be made, whether it be in what providers communicate to patients, in who conducts health education (providers, health coaches, medical assistants, etc), in how clinics collect patient information, and on.

Increasingly in recent years, experts have discussed the critical role of QI in ensuring that health care delivery is ‘culturally competent.’ Broadly defined, culturally competent care refers to the ability of a health care provider like a nurse or doctor to not only respect the diversity of values and beliefs of their patients, but also to be aware of their own personal and professional biases and assumptions, and to be willing and able to tailor care so that it aligns with a patient’s personal framework. This is a tall order. It matters a great deal, though, because health care is more than the equally-important diagnoses and, medications: health care is people helping people! If there is limited understanding and connection between patient and provider, medical care is simply not as effective. So how does QI fit into ‘cultural competency’ in health care?

When we want to make big changes, the QI framework helps us to quickly implement small, ‘test’ changes and then assess them to determine if they work (and why, if so) or what to learn and change if they do not. In a field such as culturally competent health care which is still emerging and where there has not been a significant amount of research to tell us what the best practices are, QI is a critically useful tool to identify what will work for our own individual organizations. For those of us in QI, this means that we should give thought to how to assess possible disparities in our work and how to shape possible interventions to address these disparities (trainings, workflow changes, etc). Questions to begin with include: what population do we serve? How effectively does staff serve the diversity of our population? What are our population’s needs? Are there disparities in the quality of care we provide?

As an organization that is committed to making health care more accessible and more affordable for multicultural communities, the marriage of QI and cultural competency seems especially salient. What are your experiences? How have your organizations addressed this issue?

Community Health Partnership honors one of our own - Reymundo Espinoza CEO of Gardner Family Health Network

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:33:00 GMT

Last week, Community Health Partnership leadership and staff attended the California Primary Care Association’s (CPCA) annual conference held in San Diego. The Partnership works very closely with the CPCA, as their organization represents and advocates for 800 community health centers and clinics throughout the state. Like Community Health Partnership, CPCA coordinates research and programs that promote collaboration among its member health centers.

While every annual CPCA conference is a great occasion to catch up with our fellow consortia and health centers from all over the state, this past conference held special meaning to us. Community Health Partnership’s Board Co-Chair, Reymundo Espinoza, Chief Executive Officer of Gardner Family Health Network got inducted as the new Board Chair for CPCA. Although we will miss Reymundo as our Board Co-Chair next year, we are thrilled about his new role in providing guidance and leadership to our state association.

As a way of celebrating Reymundo’s induction, Community Health Partnership co-hosted an informal reception with CPCA to mark the occasion. At the reception, we invited Reymundo to say a few words. In addition to thanking his wife, health center staff, and colleagues for their support over the years, Reymundo in true leadership fashion took this invitation as an opportunity to remind us of our history of advocacy, the relevance of our work in community health centers, and offered some inspirational advice. Fortunately for us, we got his speech “on tape.” Thought we would share. Enjoy.

National Health IT Week Roundup!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Did you know that last week was National Health IT Week? This occasion nearly flew below our radar until Penny Mudd, the Partnership’s Health Information Technology Fellow from Health Career Connection brought it to our attention. Penny is assisting us on a number of our IT projects, including developing an online resource directory for our health center membership.

According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Information Technology, Health Information Technology, better known as “HIT” makes it “possible for health care providers to better manage patient care through secure use and sharing of health information.” Keeping this in mind, one could imagine how prominent HIT has become in discussions and initiatives for improving health care delivery, especially in the community health center world. For example, in partnership with the California Health Care Foundation and the California Primary Care Association (CPCA), our health centers are participating in a statewide project called Aligning Quality Improvement in California Clinics for Meaningful Use (AQICC). The goal of AQICC is to help clinics and health centers prepare for the meaningful use of electronic health records to improve clinical outcomes and operational efficiencies in order to improve the health outcomes of patients and communities throughout California.

As advocates, designated weeks such as National Health Center Week, or in this case National Health IT Week provide great opportunities for us to share the work that we’re doing (as well as the reasons we’re doing it) with others. I’m so glad Penny reminded us to mark this occasion. Here is her roundup of last week’s events:

The 6^th Annual National Health IT Week , Sept. 12 -16, provided a forum for 150 public and private health care organizations to come together under one umbrella to raise awareness of the improved health care delivery benefits and cost savings afforded by use of health IT. The AMA (American Medical Association) data shows that providers have adopted Meaningful Use compliant Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems at adoption rates that range from 80.2% in Minnesota to 38.1% in the more rural Kentucky. Federal incentives have helped to overcome initial provider resistance.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius kicked off National Health IT Week with the first-ever HHS Consumer Health IT Summit. One of the main events was the launch of an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), an HHS agency, program to support greater consumer engagement in their own health via information technology use of http://healthcare.gov, a website designed to assist consumers with questions about health care reform and insurance coverage. This dovetails with the current Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) program – “Care about Your Care” http://careaboutyourcare.org/ – to raise awareness about what patients can do to get better health care. RWJF has partnered with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and 20 other healthcare organizations to mount this effort.

A sample of recent studies that focus on health care delivery benefits via health information technology (HIT) includes a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine supporting the premise that federal policies encouraging the Meaningful Use of electronic healthcare records improves outcomes for diabetes patients. A >30% improvement on standard measurements was recorded as opposed to the same measurements in clinics using paper records. In another example, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finally finished a study of their demonstration project where a disease- management –via- telemedicine product led to lower mortality rates and savings up to $550 per patient per quarter for Medicare patients with various chronic conditions. Another HIT phenomenon worth paying careful attention to is the explosion of smart phone and iPad use among clinical staff. Add to that the smart phone’s promise to increase “touches” – the number of contacts between a patient and their healthcare provider - to provide health education and self-monitoring tools. iPhone microphones have already been adapted to listen to a patient’s heartbeat! That’s just the beginning of how smart phones will be used for medical interventions.

HHS, having made consumer empowerment a cornerstone of its health IT policy also announced new proposed rules that would expand the rights of patients to access their health information (records). The proposed rules would amend the patient privacy provisions of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to make a patient an authorized person under Federal law, so patients could obtain test result reports directly from labs. Labs covered by HIPAA would provide information, upon request, directly to patients or their personal representatives.

Community Health Partnership’s increased use of HIT to extend services to underserved populations cannot be separated from the swirl of legislation and market forces that surround healthcare in 2011. Technological advances will continue to outpace the legislation needed to mitigate any negative impacts they might have. The venture capital community will continue to make bets that dramatic (i.e. effective and widely accepted) breakthroughs in health care technology are possible. Due to the recession, many middle class citizens have joined the traditionally underserved in the limbo of having no private coverage while courts debate the constitutionality of federal health care reform law.

In the middle of these powerful and sometimes opposing forces, the Partnership has affirmed their commitment to medically underserved communities with efforts that are also consistent with the most recent national focus on HIT seen during National Health IT Week. Community Health Partnership’s plan to boost support to its clinics with clinical data analysis and HIT services to support capacity expansion is one such story. So is our increased training support to help clinics attain Patient Centered Medical Home accreditation and assist with meeting Meaningful Use Stage 1 criteria to insure the clinics maintain their status as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC).

Watch this space for further developments.

A Perspective During National Health Center Week

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:39:00 GMT

It’s hard to believe that National Health Center Week is coming to a close! We’ve been busy with a number of activities, celebrating our member health centers’ work. As many of you know, these events would not be successful without the assistance of dedicated interns. One of our policy interns, Steve Yang came to us by way of Vision New America, an organization founded to promote civic participation in underrepresented groups through their public policy internship programs. Steve is an incoming junior in high school, and prior to joining us for the summer, was not aware of community health centers.

At the beginning of the summer, as part of planning for National Health Center Week, Steve took it upon himself to read Access Denied: A Look at America’s Medically Disenfranchised. Like the superstar intern he was, he wrote me a brief report about it. I hate to admit it, but when he turned his “one-pager” in, I glanced at it, saw it looked satisfactory, and placed it in a stack of reports and files.

Last night, while I was re-organizing my desk, as it had become a mess with all the flurry of activity from this past week, I came across Steve’s report. I decided to give myself a break and took a moment to read it. As I was reading, a couple of thoughts came to mind. First, Steve is a much better writer than I ever was in high school. I was impressed. But in addition to that, a realization came to me that I had visual “proof” that thanks to his experience here at the Partnership, one more person (a young, bright one who will most likely be a leader one day) now knows and can talk about community health centers.

As we advocate for health centers and policies that strengthen health care access to the medically underserved, at times the fruit of our labor is not readily noticeable. That phone call made, that petition signed, that vote cast…sometimes we can see our success immediately, and at other times it’s easy to feel discouraged.

Fortunately, we have National Health Center Week to remind us to celebrate the importance of our work. It’s been fantastic seeing the shared events on the Community Health Centers Facebook page, as well as all the #NHCW11 posts on Twitter. After witnessing and taking part in Health Center Week celebrations in person and online, I feel as if I’m part of a movement that is greater than any words can express.

And lucky for all of us in the future, we have a new, young adult who will be able to vote in a few years, and speak eloquently about community health centers. Thanks in part to a report by NACHC, and thanks in part to National Health Center Week.

A few things about Steve: he enjoys learning about politics, government, and history. He plays a variety of sports, but his main sport currently is golf. He’s also looking at colleges on both coasts. He gave me permission to post his report (my week’s inspiration) on this blog entry for you.

Hope you had an excellent week.

Approximately forty years ago, in 1965, Community, Migrant, Homeless, and Public Housing Health Centers started a pilot project which would create health centers in areas where there were scarce or no doctors present. The goal of these health centers was to improve the access to care for underserved populations so that there will be many more people in the United States who could receive some form of medical care. Because these health centers were placed in areas where there are not many physicians or doctors, statistics have shown that many more of people’s lives have been saved and health costs have gone down.

Research has been done by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center. In the report, “Access Denied: A Look at America’s Medically Disenfranchised”, it states that everywhere in the states there are medically disenfranchised populations. However, because of the health centers being formed, people’s lives have been ameliorated. This effect is caused by the health centers having quality care and preventing many common illnesses from showing up as frequently, such as the flu or the cold. Another positive factor about the health centers is that they are local; so many more people have access to be treated or diagnosed without having to go to different counties or cities.

Health centers not only help those who look for medical care, but also help those who are financially in trouble. Because of the lower costs to receive treatment, many residents in the area can afford to go to these medical homes. Also, health centers lower the costs of many people’s medical bills. Before health centers started to appear around the country, people became sick because of preventable illnesses. As a result, those in need went to the emergency rooms more often, had more hospital visits, and needed more medication. Because of the medical homes, people found it less necessary to go to the hospitals as often as they used to. Again, the reason for the fewer hospital visits was because the patients had easy access to a doctor whenever they were ill.

No matter what opinions people may have of funding these medical homes, statistics have shown that these health centers have created positive results. Many more residents are living healthier and fewer lives are being lost to easily preventable diseases. Not only do regular citizens see these positive outcomes, but the government sees it as well. That is why members of Congress have invested more of their time to help the Federal Health Centers Program.

Currently, I am new to the world of health policy and I am learning why people advocate for better health coverage for everyone. So far, I have only tasted what it means to advocate for health policies and why it is important for the health centers and health care to be present for the public. I have learned that even with all of the laws and advocacy going on for health coverage, each small step forward is a dent to mitigate this problem. There is still a lot to do to help those underserved populations and those who are in need, but as more people are educated on why health centers and health coverage is important and find their own voice and opinions on this subject, then that is as big of a step as a law helping health centers and a law that increases health coverage for all.

And the countdown begins…National Health Center Week is days away!

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:56:00 GMT

And the countdown begins…National Health Center Week is days away!

National Health Center Week is just a few days away, and as you know, we have quite a bit planned! Just in case you haven’t heard, click here for next week’s line up!

I would like to take a moment to talk about some of the “virtual” activities we have planned in celebration of National Health Center Week. On Facebook, we’ll be featuring each one of our health centers daily. Since we have more health centers than days of the week, our posts will just have to flow into the following week. And throughout the week on Twitter, we’ll take a break from our posts about the California budget and other issues so that our Twitter stream becomes a sort of “CHC Channel,” as we’ll be sharing all our favorite community health center articles, resources, and advocacy tips.

So if haven’t officially “liked” us on Facebook or aren’t following us on Twitter, now is the time!

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/communityhealthpartnership

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chpartnership

See you all online. Happy National Health Center Week!

My inspiration of the week- Wanda Klor, Health Care Advocate

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:39:00 GMT

While there seems to be no limit about what I could possibly write about (debt ceiling negotiations, National Health Center Week, the elimination of Adult Day Health Centers in California, etc.), I would be remiss to not at least mention in this week’s blog entry an amazing, inspiring woman I’ve met thanks to my work at the Partnership named Wanda Klor.

Since 2009, Wanda has organized an annual charity event, the Portera Commons Community Celebration, a fundraiser to benefit her favorite causes. Fortunately for us, Community Health Partnership’s Community Mammography Access Projecet (CMAP) is one of them! The Portera Commons Community Celebration is Wanda’s origination; she founded the event from scratch. She wanted to offer a different type of fundraiser- one that was for all members of the community, that didn’t require people to purchase a $100 dinner ticket or a ball gown.

One of the many inspiring qualities about Wanda is her deep commitment to helping those in need. After winning her battle with breast cancer, she wanted to find a way to provide other women with the same opportunity. Upon conducting an online search, she found Community Health Partnership, and learned about our Community Mammography Access Project (CMAP). CMAP provides mammography services to women 40 and older not able to afford it. Reflecting upon her experience, she decided that this was a service she wanted to raise money for.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, when breast cancer is detected early, as in Wanda’s case, there is a 5 year survival rate of 98%. However, if you are uninsured, the average cost of receiving a mammography is $300. If you are unemployed or are struggling to make ends meet, $300 is cost prohibitive. Imagine needing a mammography, not knowing if you have cancer, and not having the means to pay for it.

Last year, thanks to Wanda Klor’s Portera Commons fundraiser, 25 women in Santa Clara County who needed a mammography received one through CMAP. Imagine the impact of possibly saving 25 women’s lives. What an inspiring example of health care advocacy.

National Breast Cancer Awareness month is three months away in October. October also happens to be the month of Wanda’s birthday. 2011 also marks her 13^th year being cancer-free. Wanda will be celebrating these occasions with us in October by riding with us in our mobile mammography van.

We’re really looking forward to it.

Education as Advocacy on National Health Center Week

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:17:00 GMT

National Health Center Week (August 7-13) is just around the corner! We have a number of events lined up, and if you’ve ever organized a public event, you can probably imagine that it’s a busy time! However, I’m pretty excited about how Community Health Partnership is using National Health Center Week as a springboard to raise awareness of our clinics and current health care issues. I hope you’ll join us.

On Monday, August 8, we are co-sponsoring a “Health Disparities and Social Inequities Briefing” with California Assemblymember Paul Fong in partnership with our member health center Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) , The Health Trust, and Kaiser Permanente. According to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, “health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups.” As the health care safety net for the poor and uninsured, community health centers see the populations that suffer most from health disparities. For example, one of our Board Members, Liz Hunt, CEO of Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley will be addressing how the legacy of racism towards American Indians affects the health outcomes of this communities even in present day. Through this briefing, we not only aim to raise awareness about health disparities, but also intend to enlist a new crop of community health center supporters, willing to fight health disparities and social inequities with us.

On Tuesday, August 9, we are scheduled to receive a proclamation for National Health Center Week from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, and will be hosting a reception afterwards. We are pleased that our county is recognizing our health centers in this way. Obtaining proclamations and resolutions is a great excuse for celebration, and doubles as an advocacy tool that reminds elected officials of the important role health centers have in keeping communities healthy.

On Wednesday, August 10, Gardner Family Health Network will be hosting free glucose and blood pressure screenings next to San Jose City Hall and at all of their clinic sites. “Gardner” has attracted quite a bit of media attention lately; they were featured in the Bay Area edition of the New York Times this month, and an op-ed piece supporting their expansion ran in the San Jose Mercury News this past week. Both articles highlighted the challenge that community health centers face all over the country: trying to do more with less. Meeting the increased demand for accessible and affordable health care while facing local, state, and federal cuts.

While originally scheduled during National Health Center Week, we are pleased to announce that Congressman Mike Honda and will be joining us for a legislative briefing on health care reform on Thursday, August 25^th. I’ll be sharing more details about this much anticipated event soon.

I would love to see you at any of our National Health Center Week events! Simply give me a call at (408) 570-6014 or send me an email.

Save the Dates for National Health Center Week! August 7-13, 2011

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:44:00 GMT

Hi Everyone!

National Health Center Week is less than a month away! The theme of this year’s National Health Center Week is “Celebrating American’s Health Centers: Serving Locally, Leading Nationally.” We’re really excited about our schedule of events this year, as we’re working with our member health centers, community partners, and elected officials to not only raise awareness about the value of community health centers, but also using this week as a reason to educate the general public about a broad range of health and health care advocacy issues.

Here’s how our schedule looks so far:

Monday, August 8
Health Disparities and Inequities Community Briefing
Sponsored by Assemblymember Paul Fong
1:00-3:00 PM
Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium
County of Santa Clara Government Center
70 West Hedding Street, San Jose, CA
RSVP: Email Assemblymember.Fong@assembly.ca.gov or call (408) 277-2003

Tuesday, August 9
Proclamation of National Health Center Week by the County of Santa Clara
Reception to Follow
9:00 AM
County of Santa Clara Government Center
70 West Hedding Street, San Jose, CA
RSVP: policy@chpscc.org or call (408) 579-6014

Wednesday, August 10
Free Blood Pressure and Glucose Screenings with City of San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed!
Sponsored by Gardner Family Health Center
10:00-1:00 PM
Gardner Family Health Center’s Mobile Unit will be parked close to the City of San Jose Rotunda Building

Date to be determined: Health Care Reform and Medicaid Legislative Briefing with Congressman Mike Honda

Just wanted to share these dates so you have them in your calendar! I really hope you can join us. In the coming weeks, I’ll be rolling out more information, and spotlighting each of events in grand style. Also, if you’re interested in volunteering, please feel free to give me a call: (408) 570-6014.

Best,

Grace-Sonia