Variety Care Foundation: ALL OF US

Letter from the Executive Director Since its humble beginning and during the decades of challenge and accomplishment, Variety Care worked with vulnerable populations in great need. The partnership forged between OKC-County Health Department, the Community Chest, Variety Care, and the Junior League provided much needed help for underprivileged families. Health care professionals and volunteers provided mobile x-rays for vulnerable neighborhoods during the Tuberculosis era beginning in the early 40’s. Variety Care was committed to children throughout the polio epidemic and helped distribute vaccinations beginning in 1955 after its discovery.

Through the COVID response and recovery, Variety Care has engaged with an unstoppable culture that exemplifies our core values. Most significantly our core values of resilience, inclusiveness, and teamwork. These strong characteristics have been part of the Variety Care culture for almost 90 years. Our history has always been about community partnership, service, and response to need.

Founded in 1932 by the Variety Club of Oklahoma City and in partnership with the Junior League, our organization began taking care of children living in poverty during the Great Depression. The Walnut Grove Health Center was founded that same year. The Variety Health Center moved to a new location on Walker in 1940 and moved again to a larger facility on 6th street in 1987, made possible by a gift from Bank of Oklahoma.

That site remained in operation until 2012. Through a community merger of two strong organizations in 2009, Variety Care currently operates 14 health centers in Oklahoma, Caddo, Cleveland, and Tillman counties with an additional site to open in Canadian County July 1.

The 2019 results in access and quality show that since 2009, the organization has grown by over 400 percent and has improved its quality of care and outcomes year over year.

Today, serving over 120,000 people, Variety Care has adapted to the challenges of the current COVID-19 pandemic using outbound care coordination, triage, telehealth, screening and testing. With so many people finding themselves unemployed and losing their health insurance, Variety Care still offers same day access to telehealth and testing on a sliding scale, regardless of the ability to pay. Staff have used up to date CDC guidelines to make sure people who seek care or services in medical, dental, mental health, vision, lab, xray, nutrition, pharmacy and WIC have access to care at a price they can afford.

Through recent and planned collaborations with United Way, NorthCare, Positive Tomorrows, Hearts for Hearing, Urban League, The Regional Food Bank, OU Medical Center, Norman Regional, Food and Shelter, Integris-Health, PIVOT, Oklahoma City Public Schools, OKC-County Health Department, Oklahoma State Department of Health, and THRIVE—we continue to fill gaps in the community and share our resources and find a way forward.

We have shown that resilience, teamwork, and inclusion is part of our DNA. The community response and investment through time and treasure show that Variety Care is a flexible, relevant, and an essential part of the health care delivery system in Oklahoma. We are grateful to the people in Oklahoma City who in 1930 began having bake sales and fund-raising parties aimed at underprivileged families in need. Their vision has proven worthy of pursuit and has provided a legacy of caring. Today, we need and value the financial support of our donors and sponsors even more during these uncertain times and we are truly grateful for their trust in us to do as much as we can, with what we have and where we are called to serve.

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ALL OF US

EXPANDING ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE DURING A PANDEMIC OVER

2,000 VIRTUAL VISITS

ACCESS TO

OVER

14

500

HEALTH CENTERS

HEALTH CARE HEROES

Your support allows individuals and families to safely shelter in place and still receive access to essential health care services.

Variety Care has an 88-year history of taking care of those in need, day in and day out.

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CARE TEAM HEROES Pulling our heroes from the shadows! Help us speak their names!

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SANDRA GILLILAND She’s direct, confident, and extremely knowledgeable. As she slowly leans in, her head nods and eye contact help relay the importance of the information found within each word. While providing education to her team on the growing COVID-19 pandemic, she also works to dispel myths and remind all ears lingering to her words on what’s most important at Variety Care—patient care.

“We play a vital role in slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Gilliland says. “Together, we can protect ourselves and our community.”

When Dr. Gilliland accepted a new role as Director of Clinical Quality, she thought her first task would be educating patients on her new transition.

It’s a task that she took to heart. After working with children and parents at Variety Care for years, the individuals and family members that she cares for are more than just patients—they are family.

“I take my role as a pediatrician extremely seriously,” Dr. Gilliland says. “I believe in Variety Care’s mission of expanded health care for all. Although it was a big decision, my new role will help me serve more individuals by ensuring that patient experience and quality remain at the forefront of our service model.”

Dr. Gilliland will play a heavy role in identifying and implementing best practices related to clinical operations. She is responsible for leading Variety Care’s Continuous Quality Improvement efforts aimed at improving access to high quality primary health care. Her expertise has already helped Variety Care navigate clinical response to COVID-19.

“I cannot think of a better person to lead us during these uncertain times,” Dr. Lydia Nightingale, chief medical officer, says. “Dr. Gilliland has the experience and organizational skills needed to rally staff members and keep patients safe and informed.”

Director of Clinical Quality

Thank you!

DR. LYDIA NIGHTINGALE BOLD. BRAVE. ONE OF US. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lydia Nightingale speaks with the American Cancer Society on our response to COVID-19 and championing health care for women everywhere.

The workdays are often long and tedious for Dr. Lydia Nightingale, but the past couple of months have been exceptionally busy. As Chief Medical Officer at Variety Care, Nightingale regularly sees patients from every walk of life.

“We see all patients, regardless of ability to pay,” she said. “We take Medicaid, Medicare, insurance and selfpay patients. We do not ask for proof of citizenship, and we only require a proof of income to ensure a patient qualifies for our sliding scale payment.”

During National Women’s Health Week, Nightingale took a few moments to talk about her workload and how COVID-19 has impacted her already full patient roster.

“There have been massive impacts to health care with COVID-19,” she said. “The first that I think of are the number of people who have lost their jobs and therefore have lost their health benefits. We have seen an uptick in new patients here at Variety Care because patients have lost services or have not been able to see their previous providers due to the economic fall out of this pandemic.

We see all patients regardless of having insurance, so it makes sense that patients would seek our services if they have lost insurance during this time.”

Variety Care has also been able to see more patients remotely through telehealth, allowing the elderly and those with compromised immune systems to access health care from home. Additionally, Nightingale says they are taking longer times between appointments to allow for deep-cleaning, and making sure staff has the proper personal protective equipment.

Being able to rely on organizations like American Cancer Society is a godsend, she adds, recognizing the valuable partnership between the two organizations.

“The American Cancer Society is a valuable partner because they understand that true Women’s Health starts with prevention,” Nightingale said. “We can stop cancer like breast cancer with mammogram screening and yearly visits to the doctor’s office, and cervical cancer can be eliminated with vaccination like the HPV vaccination along with Pap Smear screening."

Oklahoma still ranks toward the bottom in terms of women’s health and health care, Nightingale said, with a great amount of room for improvement.

“The good thing is we have great health care workers who want to improve the outcomes in this state,” she said. “And partnering with organizations like the American Cancer Society to spread information about the HPV vaccine and preventative care will help in how we improve women’s health. We also need to focus on mental health and maternal care outcomes.

Looking at our social system and improving ACE scores in our society are very important and we can do this by working to improve prenatal care and providing contraception and birth spacing. Providing affordable health care is key and working towards Medicaid Expansion will improve access to health care for thousands of Oklahomans who might otherwise not have the option to see a provider.”

Going forward, many challenges are ahead as Oklahoma plans to re-open the state. Nightingale continues seeing patients every day, and hopes all Oklahomans take the pandemic seriously.

“The challenges I see at Variety Care revolve around ensuring we have the appropriate amount of PPE, testing, and resources to provide for the state,” she said. “I worry about the spread of the disease across the state, and I want to ensure we are able to provide the best care to our patients and protect our staff and providers. Our goal is to keep patients out of the hospitals, and I worry the volume may become overwhelming if citizens of Oklahoma do not take it seriously.”

RENO CARE

TEAM

Tha nk you !

It’s been a month ripped directly from the comic book headlines for our heroes at Reno. Every team member played a major role in helping move the center to its new location. After educating numerous patients about the move through handouts, mailers, and in-person marketing, staff members at the newly constructed Reno Health Center faced more unexpected challenges offered by COVID-19. As usual, they banned together and found a way to offer the best care possible to their existing and new patients, all while practicing social distancing. Thank you, Reno! Once our sense of normalcy is reinstated, we look forward to celebrating the opening of the Reno Health Center with all of you!

Learn more about the Reno Health Center!

IT SUPPORT Variety Care houses a talented group of IT heroes who meet challenging network issues with resilience, teamwork, and inclusiveness. Moving several providers to a telecommunications-based provider system was challenging. Our IT team met these challenges with grace and a determined goal to see our health centers succeed through uncertain times.

Under the leadership of Chief Information Officer Allen Tinsley, IT diligently worked to ensure that our processes and protocols could successfully mitigate the enormous transition to telehealth. We applaud their efforts and their continued commitment to the people of our great state.

Thank you to all our

CARE TEAM HEROES

TELEHEALTH What do you do when the new threat to accessing quality health care is actually leaving your home to receive care? Variety Care providers found new, innovative ways to engage with their patients via telehealth. From the comfort of your home, telehealth services allow you to easily connect with your health care provider via a smartphone, computer, or tablet. Variety Care began laying the framework for telehealth before the onset of COVID. When the pandemic reached our state, we were able to transition more providers to telehealth and still allow patients, even those battling chronic illnesses, access to health care while staying safe and comfortable at home.

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