Erie Family Health Center

Today Erie Family Health Center was honored to receive the Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence! This prestigious award was given by the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management at North Park University, in partnership with ShoreBank. This award recognizes and celebrates Chicago area nonprofit organizations that exemplify extraordinary managerial excellence. Erie was specifically recognized for our strong internal processes, including our commitment to evaluation and developing talent from within our organization, as well as our strong  partnerships with other agencies and community organizations.

We are thrilled to be recognized for our commitment to excellence in management! To learn more about why Erie was chosen for this award, check out the award announcement video:

2010 Alford-Axelson Award Winner from Erie Family Health Center on Vimeo.

This month is National STD Awareness Month. According the CDC, this month is ‘an annual observance to raise awareness about the impact of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) on the health of Americans and the importance of individuals discussing sexual health with their healthcare providers and, if sexually active, their partners.’ As mentioned yesterday by Beats Per Minute, STDs are on the rise in Illinois (and around the country).

To promote the importance of initiating open dialogue and to promote testing for STDs, Erie Teen Health Center and Erie Clemente Wildcats Student Health Center participated in the national campaign, Get Yourself Talking, Get Yourself Tested (GYT). GYT is the result of an ongoing partnership of MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation to help young people make responsible decisions about their sexual health. For over a week, both Erie health centers have been providing special education on the importance of getting tested and even wore GYT t-shirts to remind our patients to talk to their medical providers about getting tested for STDs. For more resources on GYT and how to initiate a conversation with your medical provider about getting tested, check out these sites.

Let’s give it up for the Erie staff who worked hard this month to increase awareness about the importance of getting tested!

Erie Beats

Erie Announces Golden Toothbrush  Award Finalists! With the dedication of the Selection Committee, Erie is proud to announce the three finalists for the 2010 Golden Toothbrush Award: Dr. Reshma Dhake,  Illinois Children’s HealthCare Foundation and Dr. Jason Grinter!

Reshma Dhake, DDS graduated from the University of  Illinois at Chicago School of Dentistry. After graduation, Dr. Dhake functioned  as the community clinic preceptor at Northwest Community Health Center. She  shows by example the importance of access to care for everyone through her  patient advocacy efforts. She is a member of the Chicago Dental Society,  Illinois State Dental Society and American Dental Association. Click here to read more about  Dr. Dhake

Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) has a  single vision: to ensure that every child in Illinois has the opportunity to  grow up healthy. Working through grantee partners across the state, the  Foundation focuses its grant making on identifying and funding solutions to the  barriers that prevent children from accessing the ongoing health care they need. Click here to read  more about ILCHF

Jason Grinter, DDS has been helping his community for over  five years at Milestone Dental Clinic and is now at Illinois Masonic Hospital,  where he completed his residency. He graduated from the University at  Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Grinter says he will not rest until every  special needs patient in Illinois has access to the dental care they deserve. Click here to read more about  Dr. Grinter

Erie Beats

Erie Family Health Center is proud to have UnitedHealthcare as the Title Event Sponsor for the 2010 Golden Toothbrush Awards being held on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at the InterContinental Chicago Hotel. This event will focus on the importance of oral health and its direct impact on a person’s overall health. Chicagoans without health insurance lack access to dental care; and as a result, their overall health suffers. This is particularly challenging for low-income, minority Chicagoans. In fact, 70% of individuals in Illinois who have not seen a dentist were Hispanic or African-American.

By pledging to be the Title Event Sponsor, UnitedHealthcare has shown its dedication to improving the health care system and helping residents in Chicago’s Latino communities. UnitedHealthcare strives to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care, enhance access to health benefits and create products to make health care more affordable. 

UnitedHealthcare delivers innovative products and services to approximately 70 million Americans. Its nationwide network includes 626,000 physicians and health care professionals, 80,000 dentists and 5,035 hospitals.

Erie would also like to thank the following sponsors:

Awards Ceremony Sponsor: Aon
Patron Sponsor: Leal Associates
Friend Sponsors: Walgreens, Associated Bank, Delta Dental, MetLife and Northern Trust
Honoree Sponsors: Radio Flyer and ShoreBank

Check out the event preview video.
Become an event sponsor.

The American Public Health Association has designated this week National Public Health Week. Since 1995, the United States has used this week to highlight the importance of public health and the need for improved health in our country. This year’s theme is ‘A Healthier America: One Community at a Time.’  This theme resonates with community-based health organizations, like Erie Family Health Center. For Erie, creating a healthier America begins at the community level, where care and prevention can be designed specifically for the needs of the local community.

For Erie and other public health advocates around the country, one of the most important health issues facing America today are the  health disparities that exist in medically underserved communities. That means that certain groups of people in our country—like those with lower incomes—experience health problems at greater rates than the general population.  At Beats Per Minute, we would like to highlight a few of the health disparities that hit home in the communities that Erie serves.

(more…)

Beats this week:

1) Months ago, Beats Per Minute wrote about how health care reform would strain the already existing primary care shortage in the United States. This week, the Associated Press also discussed the issue.

2) Modern Healthcare featured the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals, which included Erie’s long-standing partner, Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Other Chicago hospitals recognized include Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center.

3) While Republicans vowed that they would repeal health care reform, it seems that most have backed off from that sentiment over concerns that it might negatively impact the GOP in the November elections.

4) What’s better than eating chocolate for fun? Eating chocolate because it might reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke! German researchers concluded this week that individuals who consumed around six grams of chocolate a day had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke. The researchers stated, though, that it was too early to start making recommendations for individuals to consume daily amounts of chocolate.

5) H1N1 is still going strong in some parts of the country. This week, the CDC and Surgeon General reported that the Southeast, mainly Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, are experiencing an uptick in cases of H1N1.

Erie Beats

Erie Family Health Center is proud to announce the 2010 Golden Toothbrush Award Luncheon Keynote Speaker! June Thomas is the foreign editor of Slate, a daily Web magazine known for its analysis and commentary on news, politics and culture. Before joining the Slate in 1997, June  was the editor and foreign rights manager at Seal Press and managing editor of Women in Translation, a publishing company specializing in women’s writing from around the world. She was born and raised in Manchester, England.

June authored the American Way of Dentistry, a widely acclaimed seven part series in Slate, which provides an in-depth analysis of the state of oral health care in the United States. The seven topics covered in the series include:

The Story of My Teeth

The Disappearing Dentist

The Oral Cost Spiral

How Dentists Think

Why Poor Folks are Short on Teeth

Inside the Dental Safety Net

Healthy Teeth for All

Click here to read this series. You can also follow the series on Facebook.

Erie Beats

Check out Erie Family Health Center’s 2009 Annual Report. Click, flip and read all about what Erie was up to in 2009!

Beats this week:

1) This week has been a busy week for health care reform. On Sunday, the House passed health care reform and sent the bill to President Obama’s desk. On Tuesday, the President signed the bill, which will provide up to 32 million individuals with health insurance.

2) The health care reform bill is over 2,400 pages and contains a few lesser known provisions. Some highlights include: chain restaurants and vending machines will have to post nutritional information and companies with at least 50 employees will have to set aside “reasonable” break times for nursing mothers and create private spaces for breastfeeding. To read more about the bill, check out Beats Per Minutes post this week.

3) It was reported this week that Chicago Public School officials are moving to revamp the school lunch program. Starting in June, schools will eliminate or reduce the availability of unhealthy food options, such as nachos, doughnuts and Pop-Tarts.

4) The Illinois Supreme Court handed down a decision this week that was met with great disappointment for many nonprofit hospitals in the state: hospitals that are designated nonprofit must provide certain levels of charitable giving to their patients in order to maintain their nonprofit status.

5) Who are we kidding?! The only thing being talked about this week is health care reform! Let’s skip the back and forth politics, though, and check out the video of President Obama signing this historic legislation.

California.  The Golden State.  Hollywood.  Movie Stars.  Disneyland.  The Redwood Forest.  If the United States was a class of fifty high school kids, California would be the Prom Queen, class president and valedictorian.  It’s a place where stars are born, the surf is always high and the sun always shines.

So even when the news coming out of this sparkling gem out West isn’t positive, it certainly still remains center stage.  We’ve read, seen and listened to all the reports that have covered the California budget crisis.  As legislation continues to pass hands between Governor Schwarzenegger and Californian lawmakers, the press continues to write all about it.

Meanwhile, the state of Illinois sits at the back of the class, averting its eyes and twiddling its thumbs.  Us Illinoisans don’t want to brag (really, we don’t) but Illinois has its very own budget crisis – one that rivals the state of California. This comes as shocking to many, but by the time the Times Magazine article, “The Great California Fiscal Earthquake” hit the presses, Illinois was staring down the barrel of its own financial meltdown.

(more…)