empowered to join with the New Town Success Zone Steering Committee to improve the lives of the children within New Town. My voice will not be small when I join a chorus of others speaking for the same issue. What I, as a pediatrician, can do to aid in the mission of the New Town Success Zone is what any physician in Jacksonville can do to advocate for children and the communities in which they live. • Become more knowledgeable about the community, its demographics, and its residents by spending time volunteering with various organizations and programs in the community. • Understand the social and environmental determinants of health most affecting children’s health outcomes and implement evidence-based strategies that have worked to improve these outcomes elsewhere. • Form relationships with the local, state and national policy makers who are responsible for this area in order to promote more effective advocacy for the children and families of this community. The children and families of New Town have the potential to overcome the hardships that have befallen their predecessors and become the hostages who successfully break from the grips of their attackers – poverty and crime. This can be done more effectively through the help and support of others- people like me and you who are no longer afraid to face the attackers and conquer them. If you would like to support the activities of the New Town Success Zone Steering Committee, visit the website http://www. jaxkids.org/Departments/Childrens+Commission/Community+Information+and+Resources/New+Town+Success+Zone.htm for more information or contact Program Manager Irvin “Pedro” Cohen at (904) 630-6339 or ICohen@coj.net
References
1.
Jacksonville Children’s Commission. Success Zone Briefing Paper I http://www.jaxkids.org/NR/rdonlyres/ pxcnydddwn2uxrfihsipynstqkagfymuf/Success+Zone+Briefing+Paper+I.pdf Accessed March 2010. 2. Duval County Health Department. Health: Place Matters. 2008; Issue 1,7:1-10. 3. Florida Department of Education. School Grades by County http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/default.asp. Accessed March 2010. 4. United States Dept of Agriculture. Income Eligibility Guideline for Free and Reduced Lunch. http://www.fns.usda.gov/ cnd/Governance/notices/iegs/IEGs09-10.pdf. Accessed March 2010.
The Problem with the American Health Care System Nararjun Rayapudi, MD and Joseph J. Tepas III, MD University of Florida, College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Department of Pediatrics
Introduction As an international medical graduate, I had minimal exposure to the American health care system before starting residency training. I graduated from medical school in India and realized that I was working and learning in an underdeveloped health care system. Many patients were not getting adequate health care because of lack of facilities, money, or available skilled personnel. I wanted to pursue further education in what is recognized as one of the best health care systems in the world. This led me to the United States. In my training, I picked up the clinical aspects of patient care very quickly, however, I developed several questions about the system.
My Project To gain deeper understanding of the American health care system, I spent six weeks on an elective rotation in health administration. I was assigned to the administration department of Shands Jacksonville; a 696 bed, tertiary care, teaching hospital. My faculty mentor also arranged a one week rotation at Orange Park Medical Center, a HCA hospital. This helped me appreciate the differences between a safety net hospital and a private hospital. My colleagues in the administration at Shands hospital included two residents who had finished MBAs in health care administration and were doing a one year internship at this facility. I functioned as the third resident under the mentorship of Mr. Steve Blumberg, Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning. As an administrator, I attended numerous business meetings, interviewed personnel from various departments of administration 30 Vol. 61, No. 2 2010 Northeast Florida Medicine
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