Design with kids in mind 3
Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
MAY 1, 2019 VOLUME 35, NUMBER 8
Native American tribes, Avera Health zero in on health needs
Aaron Huey/Alamy stock photo 2012
By KEN LEISER
Youngsters and adults gather for horse races at the Veterans Powwow in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation.
Native Americans are far more likely to suffer from obesity and clinical depression than the rest of the U.S. population. Nationally, their life expectancy is five years shorter than non-Native Americans. And their death rate from drug overdose is higher than the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In June 2015, Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Avera Health named Leroy “J.R.” LaPlante as its director of tribal relations — the health system’s primary liaison with regional tribal governments. Prior to that, LaPlante — who graduated from University of South Dakota School of Law — was South Dakota’s first Secretary of Tribal Relations and later an assistant U.S. attorney. LaPlante, 50, was born and raised on Continued on 4
Catholic Health collaborates with college to aid community, expand workforce
AMITA Health clinic embraces kids adjusting after perilous journeys By ELIZABETH GARONE
Their journeys to the United States have not been easy, taking anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months. They have come by bus, train, and on foot. When they arrive, they are often malnourished. They may have oral thrush, and rashes and insect bites on their arms and legs. Sometimes, their feet are covered in blisters from all of the walking. They are unaccompanied minors, age 12 to 17, who have made their way north to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Through the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program, which is funded through
By NANCY FRAZIER O’BRIEN
Catholic Health of Buffalo, N.Y., is getting in on the ground floor of a local college’s planned Health Professions Hub. The Hub — a 50,000-square-foot clinical training center on the campus of Buffalo’s D’Youville College — will educate students for eight health professions and include a primary care clinic with professional staff and resources provided by Catholic Health. It is expected to open in the fall of 2020. D’Youville College announced plans to build the Hub in September 2016 but acknowledged in talks with Catholic Health that “as a university they did not have the experience to run a primary care clinic,” said Joyce Markiewicz, presiMarkiewicz dent and chief executive of Catholic Health Home and CommunityBased Care. “But the idea of having a clinic on Continued on 6
Within 48 hours of arriving at Maryville Academy, unaccompanied minors must be brought up to date on immunizations.
nants that affect health, I know I’m not getting the full picture,” says O’Neill, who is a family medicine physician at Providence Medical Group Gateway in east Portland, Ore. However, “if I ask, but don’t have the resources to help, it’s impractical. I’m trained as a physician, not a social worker.” Now, with community organizations staffing resource desks at six Providence
the federal government’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, the Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Ill., serves as a receiving site and a gateway to trauma-informed services and shelter in Northern Illinois. Many have entered the U.S. without visas, usually at the Southern border. Some have turned themselves in to a Border Patrol agent, because they are seeking asylum. Others enter without inspection and are apprehended by Border Patrol, said Mary McCann Sanchez, program direcMcCann Sanchez tor at the Maryville Academy, a child health and welfare organization rooted in Catholic social teaching.
Continued on 8
Continued on 5
Providence St. Joseph Health's Oregon region has set up community resource desks in six of its clinics. This one is at its Providence Tanasbourne Health Center in Hillsboro, Ore. Specialist Yazmin Navarro, seen in the background, staffs this desk.
Providence St. Joseph Health regions use customized approach to take on socioeconomic need By JULIE MINDA
Before Providence St. Joseph Health’s Oregon region began inviting social service agencies to staff community resource desks in some of its clinics about three years ago, Dr. Elizabeth O’Neill says she often found herself at a loss as to how to address the pressing socioeconomic needs of patients. “If I don’t screen for the social determi-
Providence and its promotores bring telemedicine to Hispanic parishes By KATHLEEN NELSON
Low-income Hispanic immigrants face hurdles accessing health care. In Portland, Ore., Providence Health & Services combines parish-based telemedicine and a robust health promotores program to deliver basic care, information and screenings to that medically underserved group. Providence Oregon’s community health division started its parish-based Telehealth Clinics with Promotores program in 2014, and through 2018 provided screenings and basic health care to almost 3,000 Latinos in
the Portland area. A survey conducted by Providence found that, if not for these free clinics, more than 1,000 of those patients would have done nothing about their health concerns. Providence has made a six-year commitment to the program, and patient acceptance has continued to build. “The duration of this program has been key,” says Joe Ichter, senior program manager for Providence’s community health division. “It’s tough to build trust in a short burst. The fact that it’s entrenched in the community is what gets us the results.”
Sr. Lynda Thompson, SNJM, right, prays with a woman training to be a health promotore. Sr. Thompson directs mission integration for Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore.
The parish setting alleviates fears of patients who may stay away from other provider sites out of a reluctance to give personal information regarding their immigration or insurance status. In fact, notes Antonio Gomez, program manager of community health promotion for Providence Oregon region, health promotores who do the patient intake at the clinics do not ask questions related to immigration status or insurance coverage. “Parishes have become a safe place for community members,” and the clinics are Continued on 6