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Preventive
Services
Overview
Preventive services, such as pap smears, mammograms,
and immunizations, have a substantial impact on many
of the leading causes of death. Improving access to
and encouraging the use of preventive services requires
addressing certain barriers involving the person, provider,
and system of care. There is supporting documentation
on cost effectiveness and strategies for promoting use
of preventive services. In addition, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a database
of prevention
guidelines that is a one-stop-shop for all of the
official guidelines and recommendations published by
the CDC.
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Stories
and Models from the field
UMMA Free Clinic Offers Preventive Services to South
Central, Los Angeles Residents
Los Angeles/Huntington Park, California, EC (Round
I)
Through a student organization, the University Muslim
Medical Association (UMMA) medical students at the Charles
R. Drew University for Medicine and Science have founded
a healthcare center for one of the poorest and most
medically underserved areas of South Central Los Angeles.
The UMMA Free Clinic serves an impoverished but culturally
rich population comprised of 51% Latinos and 43% African
Americans. The clinic serves the unemployed, working
poor who do not receive insurance or qualify for Medi-Cal,
and the homeless. An average of 75 patients are seen
weekly and the clinic has a patient population of 5,000
individuals who have logged over 14,000 visits.
With assistance from the City of Los Angeles, the Charles
R. Drew Medical Center, and private medical providers,
UMMA leased and renovated a deteriorated vacant building
in the center of the EC. The city provided construction
financing using Community Development Block Grant funds.
The EC provided $704,000 in RC/EZ/EC Social Service
Block Grant funds to purchase basic equipment. Medical
students from Drew University and the University of
California Los Angeles staff the facility. Doctors from
the community donate their time to supervise and train
the medical students. Seven major companies– including
Abbott Laboratories, Bausch and Lomb, Jones Medical
Industries, Pfizer, Smith Kline Beecham, Glaxo Wellcome,
and Ciba-Geigy– donate pharmaceutical and medical
supplies.
The clinic places an emphasis on regular visits and
specializes in preventive services such as well-baby
exams and care, childhood immunizations, vision/hearing
screening, on-site mammographies, HIV testing, and referral
of mothers to other medical providers for prenatal visits.
The clinic also provides community seminars conducted
by medical students on the health effects of smoking,
high blood pressure, sexually transmitted diseases,
and nutrition. In collaboration with the County of Los
Angeles, the clinic holds community health fairs featuring
immunizations and breast examinations, as well as cholesterol
and diabetes screenings. Patient education and lifestyle
modification is a major objective of the clinic.
Mississippi County Health Department Satellite Provide
Preventive Healthcare
City of East Prairie, Missouri, EC (Round I)
The 4,312 residents living in the East Prairie Enterprise
Community can access preventive healthcare free of charge
at the Mississippi County Health Department satellite
located in the EC. The satellite, opened in 1999, is
a complementary addition to the expanded health services
of the Fergurson Medical Center. During 1999 physicians
at the clinic rendered 12,067 individual services. Preventive
services included immunizations, family planning services
(i.e. pap smears, pelvic exams, birth control, pregnancy
testing), TB screenings and treatment, prenatal care,
STD screenings and treatment, and blood pressure screening.
The clinic eliminates transportation barriers for uninsured
or underinsured residents who cannot easily access the
county hospital, located approximately 40 miles away.
TeleKidcare®
Kansas City, KS
TeleKidcare® has brought preventive and primary
care to 1200 Wyandotte County school children through
videoconferencing with remote doctors who use electronic
stethoscopes and other high-tech tools for examinations
and diagnosis. University of Kansas Medical Center physicians
are linked to Kansas City public schools nurses for
remote consultations. The success of the program has
prompted its expansion to include other areas outside
of Kansas City. The pilot project was funded initially
by the school district and the medical center. After
the pilot period (February - May 1998) the project received
major funding (2-year) from the Technology Opportunities
Program (National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, US
Department of Commerce). Additional funds and grants
have been received from Southwestern Bell Foundation's
Kansas Community Enrichment Program, Wyandotte Health
Foundation, Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation, Prime
Health Foundation, and the Kansas State Legislature.
FY 2002 marks the second year that the Kansas State
Legislature and Governor have appropriated funds to
expand the project statewide. Please click
here for more information on TeleKidcare®.
Note: This model does not come from an RC/EZ/EC,
but is a good example of how rural RC/EZ/ECs can access
needed health services and how RC/EZ/ECs can partner
with academic institutions.
From "Models That Work Update," Winter 2000, Volume
4, No. 2
Health Coordinators Provide Information and Access
to Healthcare Services
East Arkansas EC
Health coordinators play a vital role in assuring access
to health care service for those who are indigent, uninsured
and underinsured. Through personal involvement with
local citizens via home visits, assistance with doctor
appointments and distributing pamphlets, health coordinators
in the East Arkansas EC provide effective mechanisms
to increase the availability and knowledge of selected
preventive and early intervention services. Thus far,
health coordinators have provided information about
substance abuse, prenatal care and other general healthcare
concerns to several hundred individuals in the community
and have assisted many with obtaining direct healthcare
services.
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Tools
Healthy
people 2010
"Healthy People 2010 is the prevention agenda for the
Nation. It is a statement of national health objectives
designed to identify the most significant preventable
threats to health and to establish national goals to
reduce these threats." This site includes links to the
Healthy
People Toolkit, a field guide for health planning.
Guide
to Community Preventive Services
"A set of recommendations for the use or non-use of
population-based interventions for a variety of public
health topics"
Medicare
Preventive Services To Keep You Healthy
A description of preventive services covered by
Medicare, with handy tear-out reminder cards, can be
downloaded in HTML and PDF formats.
Support
for Prevention Campaigns
Tools for the media to use in supporting public health
campaigns - sponsored by the Surgeon General
CDC
Recommends….Prevention Guidelines System
Search the Prevention Guidelines System to find up-to-date
and archived guidelines and recommendations approved
by the CDC for the prevention and control of disease,
injuries, and disabilities.
Putting
Prevention into Practice
"A program to increase the appropriate use of clinical
preventive services such as screening tests, immunizations,
and counseling based on the U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force recommendations."
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These technical assistance resources for RC/EZ/ECs were
funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through a cooperative
agreement administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), and prepared by the Public Health Foundation. Duplication
and adaptation, with credit, are encouraged. |
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Tips
for RC/EZ/ECs
- Hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices can use
employment credits or the Work Opportunity Tax Credit
to hire RC/EZ/EC residents to help promote the use
of preventive services.
- Hospitals and clinics can partner with public schools
and use Qualified Zone Academy Bonds to help train
students for entry-level health careers.
- Businesses can use the Commercial Revitalization
Deduction in Renewal Communities for new building
construction or redeveloping abandoned buildings.
These buildings could serve as preventive services
clinics.
- Develop culturally appropriate educational materials
containing preventive services schedules.
- Seek matching funds or donation of equipment from
the companies that provide the equipment that enables
preventive services.
- Clinics and hospitals can offer employers on-site
screenings for their employees.
- Encourage the local Chamber of Commerce to work
with businesses to ensure that preventive services
are covered under a health coverage plan.
- Link local businesses to WELCOA
resources.
- Collaborate with the local health department and
medical schools/colleges to set up health fairs that
offer preventive services screening. Remember - it's
critical to set up a referral system for participants
who need further services.
- Partner with medical schools/colleges to develop
free student-run clinics that provide preventive care.
- Add preventive services screening to existing services
such as vision and hearing screening in day care centers.
- Incorporate preventive services screening into
pre-employment physicals and provide a follow-up schedule.
- Alert RC/EZ/EC residents to free and low cost preventive
services available for your local health department
or local chapter of the Red Cross.
- Monitor your progress and participation in screening.
Report back the increase in screenings and the money
saved!
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Links
CDC
WONDER - The CDC Prevention Guidelines Database
The database is a comprehensive compendium of all of
the official guidelines and recommendations published
b the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
for the prevention of diseases, injuries, and disabilities.
This compendium was developed to allow public health
practitioners and others to quickly assess the full
set of CDC's guidelines from a single point, regardless
of where they were originally published.
Office of
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Offices
of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, works to
strengthen the disease prevention and health promotion
priorities of the Department. Use this site for links
to Healthy People 2010, preventive services guidelines,
and dietary guidelines.
National Women's
Health Information Center
The National Women's Health Information Center provides
a gateway to the vast array of Federal and other women's
health information resources. Use this site to link
to, read, and download a wide variety of women's health
related material, including information on preventive
services such as breast screenings, pap smears, and
prenatal care.
The
Guide to Community Preventive Services
Identifies community-based interventions that work.
Addresses a variety of health topics important to communities,
public health agencies and health care systems. The
guide "summarizes what is known about the effectiveness
and cost-effectiveness of population based interventions
designed to promote health, prevent disease, injury,
disability and premature death as well as exposure to
environmental hazards."
Partnership for
Prevention
Partnership for Prevention works to "emphasize
disease prevention and health promotion in national
policy and practice". They "provide high-quality
information about prevention to policy makers such as
Members of Congress, corporate leaders, and state and
local health officials."
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