Opening of Piedmont Health SeniorCare

Burlington, NC –

Piedmont Health Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of Piedmont Health SeniorCare (PHSC), a certified Program for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE). Piedmont Health SeniorCare’s Adult Day Health Center is located at 1214 Vaughn Road, Burlington and will open on November 1, 2008.

Piedmont Health SeniorCare (PHSC) is an alternative model of long-term healthcare delivery targeted to frail elderly. PHSC is the second PACE program in NC and one of 52 PACE programs nationally in 26 states. The program offers comprehensive long-term health, social, medical and dietary care. Services include, but are not limited to: primary and specialty care, preventive services and education, nursing care, prescription medication (including home delivery), nutritional counseling, dental care, optometry, home health and personal care, caregiver respite, hospital and long term care, case manager, medical equipment, rehabilitative therapies, recreational activities, and transportation.

The majority of care is delivered at the Adult Day Health Center on Vaughn Road, which is open 8-5 Monday through Friday. Some services are also provided in-home. In addition, Piedmont Health SeniorCare has partnered with existing community providers to maximize community resources and to meet participants’ needs. Access to care is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

PHSC serves individuals who are age 55 years or older; residents of Caswell or Alamance Counties; nursing home eligible; and able to live safely in the community at the time of enrollment with the provision of PACE services.

This program is a managed care program and is financially sustained with monthly Medicare and Medicaid capitated payments. Participants who are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid will have no out-of-pocket expenses for this program.

“PACE is an option for at-risk seniors and their families who desire to remain in their home and community. The program philosophy is centered around the belief that is it is better for the well being of seniors with chronic care needs to be served in the community whenever possible” per Dr. Barbara Rowland, Medical Director of Piedmont Health SeniorCare.

For more information or to take a tour of the new facility, please call Latorria Mumford at 336-532-0000.

Piedmont Health Services Centers to Offer Voter Registration

Piedmont Health Services, Inc., a private non-profit organization serving the citizens of central North Carolina, launched a voter registration drive for employees and clients of its six centers on Monday, September 8th. The voter registration drive will go through October 10, the last day to register in North Carolina before the Nov. 4 election.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer non-partisan voter registration during this exciting election year,” said Brian Toomey, CEO. “This effort is part of a larger plan initiated by our national association. It has been heartening to see more and more staff members get excited about this program.”

Representatives from each of the six centers were trained by the non-partisan voting rights advocacy group, Democracy North Carolina, on how to conduct a non-partisan voter drive. “It is exciting that six centers, including some in rural locations, now have the tools to register citizens to vote. The center staff members are really fired up. I’ve spoken with several of them since the training, clarifying educational tools available for their use,” said Molly Beacham, Director of Development for Democracy North Carolina, who conducted the training. Democracy North Carolina’s research shows that communities with high voter turn-out also have better economies, better educated residents and lower income disparity. The group is also creating a voter guide and a website to inform voters about candidates and issues so Carolinians can make educated choices.

Zulay Clark, Center Manager of the Prospect Hill Community Health Center in Caswell Co. has a vested interest in the voter registration drive’s success. She has recently earned her citizenship and will be voting in November for the first time. She challenged her co-workers to register as many people as possible between now and the registration deadline.

"I am excited to be involved in this initiative of reaching out to our communities to stress the importance of voting. I also like the idea of creating a voter guide and website to inform voters about candidates and issues,” said Betty Melanson, Public Relations/Marketing for Piedmont Health Services, Inc. “Knowledge is power. People can vote more confidently if they know who they are voting for and why they are voting. I am proud that Piedmont Health Services wants to promote this."

“Health centers like Piedmont Health Services are unique institutions, not just in the health care system, but in the fabric of the communities they serve, each governed by a community board with a patient majority-- a patient democracy," said Marc Wetherhorn, national Advocacy Director for the national Association of Community Health Centers. "That's why health centers are an ideal vehicle for this Community Health Vote initiative. Health centers have the ability to communicate, educate and energize clients by connecting them with public policy decision-makers so that when decisions are made, those decisions will positively and dramatically impact the lives of our clients, people who often feel disenfranchised from the policy making process."

NC Diabetes Collaborative Spotlights Blue Ridge and Bertie County

The NC Medical Journal's "Spotlight on the Safety Net" highlighted two health centers that actively participate in the North Carolina Diabetes Collaborative, Blue Ridge Community Health Services (BRCHS) and Bertie County Rural Health Association. The NC Diabetes Collaborative was founded in 2003 and its ultimate goal is to reduce health disparities through the adoption and implementation of improvement processes. Click on the title link for the full article.

Below are two excerpts from the article:

Since its inception in 2004, BRCHS has tracked over 500 diabetic patients. BRCHS sees a largely Latino population (47.9%) followed by White (44%) and African American (6.9%). Diabetic patients are entered into a database application that is designed to assist care providers as well as management in tracking the quality of care provided to patients.

The Bertie County Rural Health Association is seeing fewer patients on dialysis as a result of the Diabetes Collaborative. Staff also report seeing significant weight loss, fewer ulcers, and less surgery needed for diabetes-related conditions such as gangrene. But perhaps most importantly, the BCRHA patients are now more actively engaged in their health due, in part, to the concern and attention that the BCRHA staff show their diabetic patients as a result of the Collaborative and the improved diabetes protocol.

NC Justice Center Proposes Health Plan

Members of the NC Justice Center's Health Access Coalition have created a plan to guarntee quality health coverage for every North Carolinian while reducting costs for those already insured. The plan is the one of the most progressive steps in reducing the number of uninsured in NC. Click on the title link to read the full proposal in PDF format.

The Greensboro News & Record article states the following:

The plan calls for the state to raise its cigarette tax by about 65 cents per pack to help pay for the program - traditionally an unpopular proposal in this tobacco-growing and cigarette-manufacturing state.

The state also would consolidate small-business and individual health insurance markets to spread risk across a larger population and make insurance cheaper. And it would require private insurers to insure people with pre-existing medical conditions at the same rates as those without. The industry likely would oppose both measures.

Individuals or families who could afford health insurance would have to buy it or pay a penalty on their state income taxes once a full range of affordable options for health insurance is in place. Whether such a range is achievable is one question; whether forcing people to buy insurance would be politically popular is another.

Kay Hagan Visits Greene Co. Health Care Corp

U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan toured one Greene County Health Care's facilities and expressed her advocacy for the Electronic Health Record (EHR). According to reporting sources, she toured the Kate B. Reynolds Community Health Center with Mayor Don Davis and Health Center Chief Executive Officer Doug Smith.

A win-win at the community level

Community Health Centers (Federally-Qualified Health Centers) have been known to be a program worthy of modeling, and now Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has expressed his belief in this model in a compelling article published in The Hill.  He clearly articulates the national impact that can be made by expanding the Community Health Center model to increase access to health care.  Below is an excerpt:

For a relatively small amount of money, we can provide primary healthcare to every American in need of it through an expansion of the successful Federally Qualified Health Center program. On a budget of only $2 billion a year, this program, which has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, now provides primary healthcare, dental care, mental health counseling, and low-cost prescription drugs to 17 million people through 1,100 health center organizations in every region of the country for an average cost of $125 per patient per year. The doors of these centers are open to all, including patients with Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance or no insurance at all, with sliding-scale fees.

Today, another 800 Federally Qualified Health Centers already have been approved but have not been funded because of inadequate resources. The simple and very important truth is that, if we fund these 800 already-approved centers and an additional 2,900 centers over the next five years, we could provide primary healthcare to every American in need of it. In other words, for a total of $8.3 billion a year, we could have 4,800 centers caring for 56 million people in every medically underserved region of the country. 

Click here to view the full article.

Dr. Evelyn Schmidt featured in Duke Magazine

Dr. Evelyn Schmidt, CEO of Lincoln Community Health Center, Inc. was featured in Duke Magazine in an article entitled, "Dr. Yes."  This article highlights the beginnings of Dr. Schmidt's career, her motivation and commitment to the mission of Lincoln Community Health Center Inc., and her leadership to make the Health Center innovative and trendsetting in the wake of an ever-changing and challenging health care environment.  Below is an excerpt:

"The general public doesn't recognize the quality of care Lincoln provides because of who they serve there," says Joyce Nichols, who has used the center for her health-care needs for thirty-five years. "The people there don't care how you're dressed or how you look or smell. They treat you with respect, and they treat you as well as or better than any other medical provider in town."

Schmidt makes sure of that. Lincoln's chief executive since shortly after it opened in 1970, she possesses a commitment to serving the poor that borders on a passion and has become the center's guiding principle in a continually changing health-care industry. Although she and her staff readily adjust to the times—Schmidt's office door features a picture of a dinosaur with the caption "Adapt or Die"—providing high-quality medical care to patients on the margins of society is the steady foundation of the center.

"Most of our patients have been pretty much left out in the cold by the health-care system," she says. "The only way we're going to succeed as a nation is if we're healthier and better educated—and I mean everybody has to be provided for." Durham, she says, is "a tale of two cities," with Duke Medical Center's world-class facilities and pioneering research taking place a stone's throw from the bleak financial and social conditions faced by Lincoln's clientele. 

To read the entire article, please click on the title link.