northbay center for primary care :: Article CreatorMorehouse School Of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is a historically black institution that was established in 1975 with the mission to recruit and train minorities and other students as physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals committed to the health care needs of minorities and the underserved. In 1983, MSM joined the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of six predominantly black institutions of higher learning. MSM holds the maximum accreditation (seven years) by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. MSM residency programs are fully accredited by the Accrediting Council on Graduate Medical Education.
Today, MSM is a four-year medical school conferring the MD, MPH, MS (in clinical research), and PhD (in biomedical science) degrees. Approximately 80% of its students are AA, and about 10% are other minorities. The MSM family includes approximately 245 full-time faculty, 775 staff, 200 students, and 125 medical residents. MSM has residency programs in Family Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, General Surgery, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. MSM residents serve in hospitals that address the health care needs of Atlanta's underserved population. Eighty-four percent of all MSM graduates are practicing in underserved communities. On three national surveys in the 1990s, MSM has ranked number one among medical schools in the percentage of graduates in primary care practices (Association of American Medical Colleges, 1993, and the American Medical Student Association, 1995 and 1999 Seventy-five percent of MD graduates in 2000 entered primary care residencies (the U.S. Average is 18%).
Despite its relative youth and initial focus on education, MSM has developed a strong research infrastructure for conducting state-of-the-art basic science research. The MSM faculty excels in basic science research. Among the nation's 125 medical schools, MSM ranks 81st in competitive research awards-ahead of almost a third of the medical schools in the country, all but two of which are older. Among Georgia's four medical schools, MSM ranks number two in overall research support from the National Institutes of Health. Established in 1996, the MSM Neuroscience Institute is the first research center devoted to neuroscience research and training at a predominantly African-American higher education institution. MSM focuses its research on diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect African Americans and other minorities. The Cardiovascular Research Center, for example, conducts investigations into heart disease and other cardiovascular disorders, with an emphasis on their impact on minority populations.
In addition to the research infrastructure for basic scientists, MSM has also made significant progress in strengthening its infrastructure for conducting clinical and population-based research. The National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) is a national resource for encouraging doctors to pursue primary-care careers, for making primary-care practice more effective, and for supporting primary-care professionals serving in underserved areas. The NCPC team has developed a substantial portfolio of research and training activities, including competitive funding from NHLBI, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Annually, MSM sponsors educational conferences on women's health care, HIV/AIDS, managed care, family practice and pediatrics. MSM also sponsors educational pipeline programs for young African American students interested in health careers.
$2.5M Federal Grant Awarded To Universal Primary Care
OLEAN — Southern Tier Community Health Center Network, also known as Universal Primary Care, will receive a nearly full $2.5 million grant to help provide primary care services in the Twin Tiers.
The grant, announced Thursday by U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, is through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Center Program.
"(UPC plays) an important role in providing rural and underserved populations with the quality care they deserve," Langworthy said. "I'm grateful for their dedication to the Southern Tier, and I look forward to our continued work to ensure the needs of our communities are met."
Brett Lawton, chief executive officer of UPC, said they have received similar grant funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) before.
"This funding announcement reflects a renewal of UPC's three-year HRSA grant and is critical to help us serve our community better," he said. "This allows us to provide extra support for our patients who might need extra support getting primary care services."
Lawton said the funding amount is in line with grants from years past, making up between 10% and 15% of UPC's annual funding.
"This funding is allowing us to continue our services, though there are other grant opportunities coming up from HRSA, which would allow us to increase access to behavioral health services," he explained.
Things are on a real upward trend at UPC, Lawton said, with both patient and staff satisfaction trending higher.
"Our push to make UPC a place where people love to work, with the belief that they will have the resources needed to take great care of our patients seems to be paying off," he said. "Our patient and community lead board of directors is really engaged and we've seen a good financial turnaround over the past three years."
Looking ahead, Lawton said there are plans to purchase a new building for UPC in Bradford, Pa. And triple the size of its primary care footprint in that community, where they've seen greater and greater needs.
"We want to change the tide of the disinvestment in healthcare services in Bradford over the past several years," he added.
UPC is also adding lab draw services in its Salamanca offices so patients don't have to travel so far to get lab work completed, Lawton said, and they've partnered with OGH for lab services.
Lawton said their three-year strategic plan has seen progress being made in four key areas: streamlining and optimizing care as they are able to see more patients and improve care delivery; improving the culture with improved employee satisfaction scores in many areas by over 10%; looking to respond to community need by adding dental services at an additional site and have behavioral health services available at all five locations; and improving women's health services so they can grow and stabilize care for women and children right in the community.
"We are so excited to serve our community," he added. "Our vision is to provide high quality healthcare for every member of our community."
According to HHS, the Community Health Center Program aims to improve healthcare access by supporting over 1,400 health centers nationwide. These centers play a pivotal role in addressing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, ensuring that all individuals — regardless of their background or financial status — have access to comprehensive, patient-centered care.
Patient Care
Community-based (Virtual) Access to Palliative Expertises - CAPE
Successfully managing a serious illness is a complicated undertaking. Having access to skilled palliative and supportive care experts can make a huge difference in how patients and their caregivers cope with a serious illness and complex care plans.
The UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care (CPSC) has long been a leader in providing palliative and supportive care to all categories of seriously ill patients. Those nearing end of life, those still undergoing curative therapies, and those transitioning to survivorship. At each of these stages, our physicians, nurses and interdisciplinary care team have traditionally interacted with these patients in our hospital and ambulatory clinic settings. Dr. Susan McCammon has recently joined the CPSC as the Assistant Director for Community Based Palliative Care and will oversee this initiative.
We aspire to help not only those who can currently access our physical location in Birmingham, but also those who reside further out. We want to bring our expertise to bear in our surrounding communities to help provide the best outcomes for these patients and their caregivers. Through the contributions of a generous supporter of the Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, we will now be able to build the foundation for a telehealth program that extends our expertise into the community, both locally and in our state and region. Through CAPE we will now begin partnering with organizations such as hospices, house calls, home care and other providers to consider the potential benefit of having a "virtual" consult or presence of a trained palliative care provider. Whether a patient is in a remote physician's office, a skilled nursing facility with hospice, a remote hospital, a county health department or maybe even at HOME, the CAPE program is building the infrastructure to bring our expert care directly to the patient and family.
If you are a provider in a hospice or home care organization and may benefit from a virtual consultation once, or on an ongoing basis, we will have the ability in 2019 to provide those services as well. For more information about these telehealth related programs and research call (205) 996-5054.
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