Update for Week ending
July 04, 2009
Cancer – What are we doing about it? I am pleased to announce the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium recently informed us that our new colorectal cancer screening program will receive funding for a second year. This is exciting news, because colorectal cancer screening and treatment is one of our top health priorities. Colorectal cancer is the single largest cancer diagnosis among Alaska Natives, and it has the second-highest mortality rate behind only lung cancer.
Jeannette Chavez, our patient navigator for colorectal cancer, started in March and she already has identified 2,135 Alaska Native patients age 50 years or older who never have been screened or Native patients of any age who are at high risk due to family history and past due for a surveillance colonoscopy. Of these patients, approximately 1,400 of them are due or overdue for a screening. We also are working with our providers and doing outreach to our communities to let people know the importance of early screening, signs and symptoms of the disease, and ways patients can reduce their risk. Recent outreach in Angoon resulted in referrals for 21 percent of those who needed screening, with another 7 percent asking for screening at a later date.
One reason colorectal cancer is a top priority for SEARHC is because it has a very high survival rate, 90 percent, when diagnosed early and remains in the local stage. In 58 percent of all cancer cases involving Alaska Natives, the cancer already has moved past the local stage and spread to other organs, which makes treatment much more complex. We encourage early screening because colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers where precancerous cells can be identified during screening and removed before they actually become cancer.
Customer Service. A new SEARHC Customer Service Team is comprised of Human Resources, Corporate Communications and Executive Office staff. The Team is preparing to roll out a new Customer Service training campaign to help educate and improve our internal and external customer service practices. Our goal is to provide sustainable and culturally-appropriate customer service training that will improve the quality of care provided to our patients and to each other. The first round of customer service training is scheduled for July 8th and 10th in Sitka. Continued training will be held throughout our sites.
Ultrasound on Prince of Wales Island. As we reported last week, we held an open house on Wednesday for our new Ultrasound machine on Prince of Wales Island. The new machine will greatly improve our imaging services on the island. This is a significant step forward in our service delivery plan for POW.
HRSA Grant for Hydaburg Clinic Construction. We received news on Monday that SEARHC was awarded a Capital Improvement Grant from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the renovation of the Hydaburg Clinic. HRSA will fund $445,000 of the clinic renovation. The Clinic is currently in design stage and we have a pending application to the Denali Commission for funding as well. We hope to hear from the Denali Commission soon on our application and look forward to including the project in our FY2010 capital budget. If fully funded, we believe that ground breaking could happen as soon as the spring of 2010. These funds are part of the Recovery Act.
Senator Begich Visit. Senator Begich visited Juneau on Thursday. He spoke at the Native Issues Forum, visited SEARHC, and held a town-hall style meeting on health reform in the evening. While at SEARHC, we discussed the benefits of SEARHC including our accomplishments as an organization and the ongoing needs due to short-funding of the Indian Health Service. We also shared information with the Senator on our Frontier Extended Stay Clinics (FESC) and the work on improving our outpatient delivery for chronic care patients through the Innovations in Planned Care program. The Senator seemed particularly interested in our work in Telepharmacy and the improvements that are in process for pharmacy delivery of medications.
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). SEARHC Injury Prevention program will host an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) workshop on August 18 – 19 at the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus. ASIST is a two-day, highly interactive workshop designed to give community caregivers — both professional and non-professional — the skills they need so they feel more confident and competent if they need to intervene with someone who is in immediate risk of suicide. The workshop is open to all adults who want to learn suicide intervention skills. The trainers will be Iva GreyWolf, PhD, of Sitka, and Susan Soule, MA, of Alaska ASIST Trainers in Anchorage. ASIST is an international workshop taken by more than 750,000 caregivers worldwide and can be found at http://www.livingworks.net/AS.php. Participants can register for the workshop by contacting SEARHC Injury Prevention Specialist Lesa Way at 966-8804 or by e-mail at lesa.way@searhc.org.
POW Behavioral Health Grant. On July 1st, SEARHC was awarded Comprehensive Behavioral Health Treatment & Recovery grant funds from the Division of Behavioral Health for Fiscal Year 2010. These services are primarily those previously provided by COHO on Prince of Wales Island. The grant runs through June 30, 2010.
Skagway Visit by Dr. Bowman. Dr. Russell Bowman will be coming to Skagway on July 10th to see SEARHC patients at the Dahl Clinic. Dr. Bowman is an osteopathic physician and is the medical director at the SEARHC Haines Clinic. He is board certified in Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Please encourage members to call the Dahl Clinic to schedule an appointment for Dr. Bowman if they would like the services of a physician. We hope to provide some future specialty clinics in Skagway and would need a physician's referral.
Daniel Kennedy Completes DHAT Preceptorship. This week our Dental Team informed me that Klawock's own Daniel Kennedy completed his preceptorship this June and was just approved by the CHAP board for full certification to practice dental therapy here in Alaska. Mr. Kennedy is a Dental Health Aide Therapist at the Alicia Roberts Medical Center. Dr. Erickson (ARMC Dentist) wrote, “this moment is more significant in that he is now able to see patients without the direct chair-side supervision of a dentist” and that Dan is “a highly skilled, compassionate practitioner and will become an even more integral part of the ARMC/SEARHC team as we strive to provide the best quality healthcare for our patients.” Dan also has the distinction of the first U.S. trained Dental Health Aide Therapist to be fully certified to practice. Please help us in congratulating Dan.
ELMC Laboratory Survey. The Ethel Lund Medical Center (ELMC) Laboratory just completed an unannounced COLA survey. COLA is a clinical laboratory accreditation organization. As an independent accreditor, COLA “evaluates clinical laboratories and staff to meet CLIA and other regulatory requirements, acts in accordance with Quality Systems, and provides the best possible patient care.” One of the surveyors was the lead surveyor with COLA. We are pleased to report that our lab was found to have zero non-compliance (I realize this is a double negative, but this is the nomenclature of laboratory compliance). John Perry, ELMC Lab Manager credits the achievement to “the awesome staff I have been blessed with. This takes dedication to details.” Congratulations to our staff as we continue to demonstrate our ability to meet national standards and expectations in care-delivery throughout our system.
Traditional Foods Grant Approved for Second Year. The CDC Traditional Foods grant was awarded for the second of a possible five years of funding. Located in Kake and in Wrangell, this grant for $100,000 per year supports traditional Native activities for food gathering and preparation as well as Tlingit language and storytelling. This grant complements SEARHC IHS funds for traditional knowledge camps in Klukwan. Between these three communities with customary and traditional food grants, there is generous sharing of knowledge and bartering of foods that are only available locally.
Just a reminder. . . SEARHC frequently brings in traveling medical specialists to hold specialty clinics at our various facilities. Please click here to view our upcoming specialty clinic schedules.
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