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HRSA Recognizes Camillus Health Concern

as a National Quality Improvement Leader

BY VANESSA ORR the streets and have no access to bathroom insulin, which needs to be
facilities.” CHC provides comprehensive refrigerated or kept at room
For the second year in a row, Camillus health care, behavioral health and social temperature.”
Health Concern, Inc. (CHC) has been services to the indigent and homeless in CHC is investigating inter-
recognized by the Health Resources and Miami-Dade County. ventions that will allow it to
Services Administration (HRSA) for pro- To reach this population, CHC held a improve diabetic outcomes,
viding exemplary service to patients and Carnival Day that included nutritional including a point-of-care test-
for its commitment to quality health snacks and a gift bag for patients. “We ing machine to measure how
care. CHC received a 2018 Quality gave them something similar to Fiber well a person’s sugars are con-
Improvement Award, which noted that it One to stimulate bowel movements, and trolled in real-time. “This will
had achieved the best overall clinical per- then tested them on-site,” said Ferguson. allow us to make important care testing when the patient is here
formance among all health centers, plac- “The information was entered into our interventions right away, instead of waiting because we don’t know the next time we’ll
ing it in the top 30 percent of the adjust- electronic health system. a week for results to come back,” said Dr. see them,” she added.
ed quartile rankings for clinical quality “It was a lot of work, but this initiative Iobst. “We are also seeking to obtain ice CHC is also expanding its outreach serv-
measures. really helped these patients,” she added. packs and storage containers to allow our ices to help patients who have somehow
“We are really proud of this recogni- “We will continue to do it and to leverage patients to properly store their insulin.” fallen out of care, reaching out to those
tion because all of us at Camillus Health it with other organizations.” CHC also plans to partner with other who may be living on the streets or in
Concern have been working hard to Because CHC serves a transient and community organizations to focus on shelters.
improve the quality of care that we pro- poor population, it has to be innovative patients’ social determinants to get them “We are taking a lot of approaches to
vide to our patients. We are excited by when it comes to treating patients. “The the care they need. “We need to look at address the needs of this population, and
what we have accomplished, and we’re majority of our patients are uninsured, how they are getting their nutrition, and our whole staff is working to move the
looking forward to the new quality experiencing homelessness, and almost work with housing entities and shelters to organization forward to help the people
improvement initiatives that we have all are living below the federal poverty address homelessness, especially for our we serve,” said Francis Afram-Gyening,
planned for this coming year,” said line,” said Dr. Iobst. “In order to improve medically complicated, high-risk CEO, adding that HRSA recently gave
Saraswati Iobst, M.D., who serves on the health outcomes, we must also take into patients,” said Dr. Iobst. CHC a grant of $285,000 to expand its
quality improvement team. consideration social determinants of This integrative approach is being used substance abuse and mental health servic-
One example of this is CHC’s colorec- health; the circumstances in which a per- within CHC’s different clinics as well. es. The organization is also using a
tal screening program, which has seen an son is living, for example, and how it “Because of the transient nature of our $337,400 award to build a state-of-the-art
increase in the percentage of patients affects their health. patients, we are looking at different areas dental suite to serve more patients.
screened from 11 to 44 percent. “Many of our patients with poorly con- as possible pick-up opportunities where “We really value the recognition that
“There are a lot of challenges with col- trolled diabetes are experiencing home- we can screen them, whether they’re here we’ve received from HRSA as our largest
orectal screening, especially in the popula- lessness and food insecurity, and success- for primary health care, dental care, or funding source,” he added. “We are glad
tion that we serve,” explained Chief ful management of diabetes requires a behavioral health,” said Ferguson. that they appreciate what we are doing for
Nursing Officer Anna Ferguson. “We healthy diet and often medications such CHC is also working with outside the community.”
needed to find innovative ways to target as insulin,” she continued. “These providers, such as Jackson Memorial, to
noncompliant individuals; while we might patients often do not have regular access streamline approach guidelines. “We’re To learn more about CHC,
normally give a patient a test to take home to healthy food or to conditions that not waiting for the provider to say that an visit www.camillushealth.org.
and send back, many of our clients live on allow them to properly store their A1C test is needed; we’re doing point-of-

TECHNOLOGY & PEOPLE: U.S. & BEYOND

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019 | UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

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10 November 2018 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News