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| In The News – 2002 |
| In The News – 2001 |

In The News – 2002

Vaccine Plentiful for this Flu Season, The Columbus Dispatch, Saturday, October 19, 2002

Better Health Care on Way for County’s Uninsured, The Columbus Dispatch, Thursday, October 3, 2002

Osteopathic Group Gives Nearly $2 Million for Care in Region, The Athens (OH) Messenger, Friday, September 13, 2002

Diabetes Association to Expand with Help of Donated Building, The Columbus Dispatch, Thursday, June 27, 2002

Vaccine Plentiful for this Flu Season:
Coalition organizing shots in central Ohio for those who can't afford the treatment

Flu season is going to be a little less complicated this time around.

After two seasons plagued by flu-vaccine shortages and delays, there's plenty for this year, and the vaccine is already flowing into communities throughout the nation.

In central Ohio, this year also brings a new effort to coordinate delivering flu shots and to vaccinate those who haven't been able to afford them.

Influenza and pneumonia, which is the most common complication of flu, combine for about 3,000 deaths annually in Ohio. Nationally, flu claims 20,000 lives a year and sends 114,000 people to hospitals.

About 10 percent to 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of last week, the CDC had reports of sporadic cases in nine states. Ohio reported none. The official flu season runs from November through April, peaking between late December and March. Last season, a mild one, peaked in late February.

Health officials know only what strains to expect: A/Moscow, A/New Caledonia and B/Hong Kong, said Ohio Department of Health spokesman Jay Carey. "You can't really predict how severe and when the worst part of it is going to be.''

The newly formed Adult Immunization Coalition of Central Ohio, a group of health departments, organizations on aging, hospitals and health agencies, is hoping to persuade more at-risk people to be vaccinated.

Though communities throughout the country vaccinate an average of 60 percent of the targeted population, central Ohio has fallen far short, hitting about 40 percent in 2000, said Karen Pelley, a nurse, director of marketing and wellness for Interim HealthCare and president of the central Ohio coalition.

"We'd really like to get closer to the national average,'' she said.

The group will work especially hard at reaching those who can't afford shots, which usually run about $20, Pelley said. The coalition has $125,000 to make that happen, thanks to grants from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation and the Franklin County Office on Aging. Clinics begin next week.

Those who can't afford the vaccine should request free shots at clinics, said Teri Ryan, spokeswoman for LifeCare Alliance. Clinic workers will ask that they fill out a form.

Unlike years when vaccine was scarce or delayed, clinics will not turn away those who do not fall into the high-risk category. Children cannot be vaccinated at the clinics and must receive the shots at a doctor's office.

For information on flu-shot clinics in central Ohio, call 1-888-202-1319 or visit www.lifecarealliance.org.

Reprinted with permission of The Columbus Dispatch.

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Better Health Care on Way For County's Uninsured

The bad news: Franklin County's health-care system is disjointed and faltering in its efforts to take care of the more than 126,000 uninsured residents.

The good news: With an infusion of almost $1 million, the outlook should improve noticeably within a year.

Today, the Columbus Medical Association will announce acceptance of a federal grant on behalf of Access HealthColumbus, a community coalition aimed at improving health care for the uninsured.

The grant will be used to form a web of health-care providers committed to caring for the destitute and working poor.

The basic philosophy is to take the resources already available to the uninsured, weave them together, and strive to link every Franklin County resident to a primary-care doctor and a place they can go when they have a fever or need to have their child's stitches removed.

Now, too often, uninsured residents rely on emergency rooms and urgent-care centers for these things.

Doctors, hospitals and clinics will commit to their plans on paper, and the changes soon will be tangible, with an initial emphasis on the city's South Side, said Philip H. Cass, chief executive officer of the Columbus Medical Association.

In addition to the federal money, more than $1 million in local funds will be spent on the effort, most of it from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation and the Columbus Medical Association Foundation.

One key change will be a network of primary-care doctors and specialists committed to accepting a certain number of uninsured patients. Linked to that will be the emergency rooms, urgent-care facilities and community clinics, primarily the Columbus Neighborhood Health Centers.

In a perfect world, the network -- organized through a computer database -- would kick in when patients show up at emergency rooms for something primary-care physicians could handle.

Patients' needs would be addressed and a referral to a physician or clinic would follow.
Doctors already provide care to the uninsured but in no organized format.

Recruiting doctors to participate -- the goal is at least 750 -- shouldn't be a tough task, said Dr. Bruce Wall of the Central Ohio Primary Care Group. Wall is president of the Physicians Free Clinic, which serves uninsured patients on Monday nights.

"I don't think physicians will do it to benefit themselves,'' Wall said. "I think they'll do it to benefit the community.

"I think what we're talking about doing here is making it easier to do the right thing.''

A significant part of the effort will be enrolling specialists, Cass said. Even when uninsured patients find a primary-care provider, they sometimes struggle when they need specialized care.

Another major shift will be to same-day scheduling at the Neighborhood Health Centers.

"Most of our health centers are scheduled out anywhere from six to eight weeks for new adult patients, and that's just unacceptable,'' said Patrick Lay, executive director of the centers.

Under the new plan, patients would call in the morning and come in that day -- a new approach that has been shown to improve access to appropriate and timely care, Cass said.

Columbus leaders are looking to Buncombe County, N.C., as a model. Next week, they'll visit the Asheville area for tips on how best to use the money.

A similar effort began there in 1996. Since then, 80 percent of uninsured residents report improved health, the number of residents with a regular source of care has doubled, and use of the emergency room dropped from 28 percent in 1995 to 8 percent in 1998, said David Werle, director of the American Project Access Network.

The network stemmed from the Buncombe County effort and now works with other communities, 20 of which have started similar projects and 70 to 80 others that plan to, including Columbus.
Werle said he thinks Columbus is poised for success.

"They have a very broad, very ambitious program. It's excellent,'' he said.

It's also not an effort to throw millions of dollars at constructing new buildings and hiring a bunch of doctors without first trying to work within the existing system, Cass and Wall said.

"This community is blessed with a lot of resources that aren't used to the degree that they could and should be,'' Wall said.

Reprinted with permission from The Columbus Dispatch.

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Osteopathic Group Gives Nearly $2 Million for Care in Region

The Ohio-based Osteopathic Heritage Foundations have awarded nearly $2 million for health and human services programs in seven Southeastern Ohio counties, with most of the money going for a research initiative at Ohio University.

Included is an award from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation of Nelsonville of nearly $780,000, which will be used for oral health programs for uninsured and underinsured people and for improvements to Doctors Hospital of Nelsonville.

The foundations awarded up to $1.16 million over five years for research at Ohio University's colleges of osteopathic medicine and engineering. The project’s goal is to further develop instrumentation to enhance medica students’ osteopathic palpatory skills for patient diagnosis.

Several awards were made for oral health programs, including:

• Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action receiving up to $290,531 over three years for the implementation of an oral health program in Hocking and Perry Counties.
  
  
• Ross County Community Action Commission, up to $252,253 over three years for such a program.
  
  
• Washington-Morgan County Community Action’s Southeastern Ohio Dental Clinic and Holzer Medical Center of Jackson, each receiving $20,000 to provide matching funds to support recruitment and retention of dentists in their underserved counties.

Including these awards, the Nelsonville foundation has designated almost $1 million since January to improve access to oral health care in Southeastern Ohio.

Since 1999, the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation of Nelsonville has directed more than $1.7 million to human service organizations serving Southeastern Ohio, with a major portion of this money aiding oral health initiatives, said Rick Vincent, president of the foundation. An Ohio Department of Health study identified oral health as the state’s greatest unmet health need.

As part of the awards announced Thursday, Doctors Hospital of Nelsonville will receive up to $120,000 to help acquire digital X-ray equipment.

This equipment will increase the quality of care and patient convenience, said Joel Kaiser, hospital administrator. When a radiologist is not on duty at the hospital, the image can be sent electronically for immediate reading and faster patient diagnosis and treatment.

Also for Doctors Hospital, $75,000 was pledged for an architectural engineering study of the hospital's emergency department.

Reprinted with permission of The Athens Messenger.

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Diabetes Association To Expand With Help Of Donated Building

The largest-ever donation to the Central Ohio Diabetes Association is providing the group with a new home.

Osteopathic Heritage Foundations has donated a building at 1100 Dennison Ave. in Victorian Village that is valued at $853,000.

The diabetes association currently leases a building at 1580 King Ave.

Renovations, which could begin as soon as Monday, will transform the Dennison Avenue office building into a teaching facility, said Elizabeth Bonfield, assistant director.

"Our niche is direct service,'' she said.

When the building opens sometime between November and March, new services will be available to the 31,000 people who use the diabetes association each year.

They will include a multicultural center that will provide information in several languages about diabetes, two computer workstations and a lab for testing people for diabetes. A kitchen will allow people with diabetes to learn how to prepare the food they should be eating.

Osteopathic Heritage Foundations gives grants to support community health, primarily in central and southeastern Ohio.

"We had worked with CODA on other projects,'' President Rick Vincent said. "We've been impressed with what they've done in the community.''

His organization is moving to Suite 230 at 1500 Lake Shore Dr., just west of Marble Cliff, "We didn't need all that space,'' Vincent said of the Dennison Avenue building.

Mollie Bassler, a member of a committee that is raising $3 million for the association, is amazed at the number of people who don't know about it.

"People don't want to be tested for diabetes because they're afraid they'll have it,'' she said. "With education, they realize they can manage it and have a long, healthy life.''

Including the value of the building, the association has raised about $1.8 million for renovations and the creation of an endowment, said Bassler, who has had diabetes for 42 years.

"We always serve anybody no matter what their ability to pay,'' she said.

Ricardo Murph of Lewis Center learned about the association from a hospital after he was diagnosed with diabetes in January 2001.

"They talk about exercising, eating, portion control and basic information about how to control diabetes,'' said Murph, who speaks to groups about having diabetes.

The association estimates that 600,000 Ohioans have diabetes, but only half of them know it.
At 26.8 deaths per 100,000 people, the diabetes mortality rate in Columbus is twice that of the nation.

The association offers free blood-sugar screenings, requiring only one minute and one drop of blood, at its offices from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday. No appointment is necessary.

It also offers camps for diabetic children ages 3 to 17, support groups and counseling.

Public tours of the new building will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. today. For more information, call the diabetes association at (614) 486-7124.

Reprinted with permission of The Columbus Dispatch.

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