Caregiver spotlight Community outreach nurses

Thoughtful donors help Huntington Hospital improve the well-being of local residents. Philanthropic support for our community-based services helps provide a host of outreach and education services, as well as diagnostic screenings, flu shots, emergency preparedness activities and more. become more serious,” she adds, “and it helps local of our whole community. The people who support this

and benefits, oversees our efforts to connect otherwise underserved local residents with needed medical services. “Many people don’t have insurance or a medical home,” says Ruth, “and don’t know how to find the care they need. Our programs help them.”

Ruth’s team of four part-time outreach nurses provides services at more than a dozen community sites: schools, community centers, farmers markets and other locations that are conveniently accessed by local residents. Free monthly screenings are an important part of their work. In addition, they provide health counseling on relevant topics, referrals to additional healthcare services, guidance in using needed medical devices such as glucometers for patients with diabetes, and formal and informal educational presentations.

Our community outreach program also includes pop-up medical clinics providing a variety of healthcare services. “The nurses organize the clinics in collaboration with community partners,” Ruth says. “At these partners’ sites, they set up, prepare the patients and conduct physical exams.” Sometimes, a social worker from our staff also participates in the pop-up clinic program, further

Collaborating with local nonprofit organizations, schools and government entities expands our community outreach program’s ability to meet community need. Pop-up clinics, for example, are offered at locations such as food banks, where we reach community members who face significant barriers in accessing medical care.

“Right at the very first clinic we held,” says Ruth, “more than half of the people we saw were then connected to Huntington Hospital Ambulatory Care Center (HACC) for additional help.” HACC — a full-service medical clinic on our campus — serves as a medical home for patients without other care resources. Staffed by internal medicine and surgical residents under the supervision of our medical faculty, it provides a broad range of primary, specialty and other health-related services.

Throughout this work, community donors are key partners. “We’re grateful to the donors who make it possible for us to do all this important work,” Ruth says. “What we do helps address problems before they residents make choices that enhance the overall health expanding the type of care available.

program are making a very lasting impact.”

Community outreach nurses, from left: Carla H. Partma, RN (now retired); Karen Dunn, RN; Patty Nogueda, RN; Ruth Pichaj, RN; and Kathy Eastwood, RN.