Erie Family Health Center

Beats this week:

1) Happy Fiscal Year 2011 blogosphere! Unfortunately, for some in Illinois, this new fiscal year brings a great deal of unhappiness. On July 1, Governor Quinn held a press conference in which he laid out nearly $1.4 billion in cuts to the state budget.

2) This week President Obama made a key recess appointment, placing Dr. Donald Berwick in charge of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The appointment of this position is even more important than before because of health care reform’s impact on the Medicaid and Medicare programs.

3) Around 40 million doses the swine flu vaccine (around $260 million worth) are set to be destroyed in the United States because they have expired. And that’s not the end of it: another 30 million doses are still available but set to expire in the near future.

4) Starting out the summer with some pep in their step, the White House launched a new health care reform website for consumers on July 1. This new website is part of an overall strategy to use the internet and social media as a means to inform people about health care reform. Earlier this week, the White House used their YouTube page to solicit questions from constituents about health care reform, which were then answered by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius earlier today.

5) Twitter and the blogosphere have been abuzz lately with health care folks linking to and discussing the pros and cons of electronic medical records. Erie was even featured in one of the many news stories that came out within the last week. Check us out in the Chicago Sun-Times over the weekend!

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.

Beats this week:

1)  Today, the Chicago Tribune covered health care reform and its potential impact on low-income individuals in Chicago. Erie Family Health Center and other community health agencies were featured in the story by Judith Graham.

2) Four community health centers in Milwaukee received $1 million from GE to increase primary care services to uninsured and underinsured individuals. This is the second city to receive GE Developing Health funding – a three-year program providing funding to health centers.

3) According to a new report, one in four Californians under the age of 65 are without health insurance.  In the last two years, the state’s number of uninsured individuals has increased by nearly 2 million. Despite these alarming statistics, California does not actually have the highest rate of uninsured but follows closely behind Texas.

4) The story of health care reform continues to unfold. Currently, the Obama administration is putting the pressure on for House Democrats to give the green light on health care. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the most recent Democrat to ‘flip’ their vote from ‘no’ to ‘yes.’

5) Public Health Officials in Lake County (northern Illinois) have partnered with local churches to make a final push for H1N1 vaccination. Read Beats Per Minute’s coverage on why it is still important to get vaccinated this late in the flu season.

For many, it feels like the flu has gone away. Away from the headlines on TV, the web, radio.  Away from the ERs and health clinics.  After H1N1 influenza ravished an unprepared America in the late spring 2009, and again in the fall and early winter, it has basically disappeared.  But should we let down our guard and stop worrying?

It’s true that most areas of the country are reporting either no or only sporadic (Illinois) flu activity. The most activity is in the South and in Maine.  All of it is well below epidemic levels and it’s all H1N1, not other strains of flu virus that we sometimes call the “seasonal flu.”

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Beats this week:

1) Over the weekend, patients began lining up before dawn at a dentist office in the Logan Square community of Chicago to receive free dental care. The annual event, which is hosted by Dentists With Heart, drew a line of several hundred people.

2) This week, the New York Times reported that after an extended quiet period, the U.S. is finally seeing a surge in medical schools. Could this be a response to the need for primary care providers? Beats Per Minute discussed this very issue last month.

3) Wondering why no one is talking about H1N1 anymore? The Centers for Disease Control is! The CDC says that H1N1 cases are down but reported that from April 2009 through January 2010, the U.S. saw 57 million possible cases, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.

4) A study released this week found that over the last three decades chronic conditions have significantly increased in children. In fact, from 1994 to 2006 the percentage of children with chronic conditions, such as asthma, obesity and behavioral health issues, nearly doubled. The highest rates of chronic conditions were found in Latino and African American children.

5) It was announced this week that two Illinois universities will receive federal stimulus money to invest in electronic medical records technology. Last month, Erie Family Health Center completed the implementation of electronic health records at all of our nine sites. Read about it here!