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County leaders actively looking into access to health care issues
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Location: Blogs Health Alert |
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| Posted by: Naseem S. Miller |
Monday, November 19, 2007 |
Public Policy Institute of Marion County closed the book on the Access to Health Care Study in summer, but the study’s recommendations are very much alive.
That’s because of a group of leaders took the study’s findings and decided to work on addressing the county’s health-care issues, such as shortage of primary care doctors and increasing number of uninsured residents.
The effort as a whole is called Access to Health Care Policy Organization and it has seven teams. Each team has met at least twice so far and the chairs of the teams met for the second time early Friday morning.
Most teams are still in the process of finalizing their members and projects.
Here is a quick introduction to the teams and goals. I’ll bring you up to date as AHCPO makes progress.
Team 1: Medical Professional Shortage
• Co-chairs: Mark Paugh and Pam Michell
• Goal: To increase the number of physicians, nurses and other health care professionals by working on recruitment.
Team 2: Gateways to Access
• Chair: Mike Sizemore
• Goal: Finding transportation alternatives throughout the county, and routing current public transportation major health-care providers.
• The team is currently focusing on EMSA and its future direction. Sizemore is on the board of County’s EMSA Task Force, which is almost ready to make recommendations to the county.
. Look at a recent story by Jessica Greene to see what the city is saying about ambulance services.
Team 3: Primary Care
• Chair: Dr. David Willis
• Goal: Establish a Federally Qualified Health Center, which will give access to care to everyone regardless of insurance or ability to pay.
• The county is applying for FQHC and FQHC-look-alike status in December. The results won’t be revealed till August 2008.
• The team has also recognized dental care as a shortage area.
Team 4: Regional Health Information Organization
• Chair: Dr. Mel Seek
• Goal: To interconnect patient information among hospitals and doctor's offices and give patients more control over their personal medical records.
. As a side note, the process of creating a regional health information system is no easy feat... and it's very pricey, but we've got some innovative leaders who are trying to make things affordable for doctors. I'll be writing about RHIO in the near future to explain their mission and structure.
Team 5: School Wellness Program
• Chair: Dr. Mike Jordan
• Goal: Increasing the number of school nurses, continuing to improve the school nutrition program and wellness education curriculum.
• The team is focusing on a national campaign, which it hopes to market at elementary schools.
Team 6: Public Education
• Co-Chairs: Margaret Spontak and Mike Robertson
• Goal: Develop a community education initiative to respond to health care deficiencies. The team will focus on immediate and future access issues.
Team 7: Insurance
• Chair: Steve Wingo
• Goal: Explore affordable health insurance options for those residents who are uninsured and underinsured.
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