What Should New Orleans do with 1.8 Million in Funding?
According to the Louisiana Weekly, two New Orleans community health centers are receiving 1.8 million dollars in funding to be put to use “provide comprehensive primary healthcare services to communities that are currently under-serviced.” All of the funding for this project is coming from the Affordable Care Act which allows for greater access to health care. These community health centers will allow for greater access within their targeted communities and allow individuals and families to receive the necessary primary care in a timely manner.
Also in the state of Louisiana alone, six health centers “will receive ACA funding totaling $3,500,975 to serve nearly 20,000 patients.”
Dr.Elvira Beracochea traveled to New Orleans last November. She said, “You can still still see there is a lot more work to be done and there is still a lot of disparity in the city and its surroundings. Since many health facilities were destroyed due to hurricane Katrina, and have not been rebuilt, having these community health centers available to take care of the population is a step in the right direction. Every citizen must have access to a primary health care provider in the their communities.”
What would RGH do if it was consulting on a project like this?
If RGH was consulting on a project like this, we could reorganize health services and come up with an efficient method that can demonstrate results of this investment on a monthly basis and report that to the funded agency and to the citizens to show how that money is being used. RGH uses metrics like showing how many people are taking their medication regularly, how much of the population is getting healthier through the programs implemented by community health centers, and by monitoring how much of the elderly population are safer and thriving in their homes to report proven success.
Creating programs that respond to the health needs of the population is key to success for New Orleans and to our public health system. It’s best to try not to do everything all at once but to prioritize the aid to these health centers and put the money towards prevention. Focusing on adult and childhood obesity, hypertension, and diabetes would also be a great place to start to have epidemiological impact. There are many successful public health programs that can also be adapted to the area as well.
Another strategy they could implement would be to focus on the elderly population by sending cell phone messages to remind them to take their medication, creating services that allow someone to reach out and call them once a day to make sure they are ok, following up on doctors appointments and upcoming visits, along with other things that can be adapted with the automation of technology and making these community health centers the true centers of health for the people of New Orleans.
They key is to create 21st century programs, not 20th century programs. That is what will advance health care for all in Louisiana.
WWRGHD? is a new blog series from RGH where we look at events in the news and share our take on what could be done, or done differently, to improve universal coverage to healthcare in the United States and around the world.
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