Erie Family Health Center

At Erie Family Health Center, our health care practices go above and beyond the standard.  As we provide each individual patient with the quality care they deserve, we also look beyond the symptoms and try to find new and innovative ways to address each patient’s health care concerns and needs.  Each and every day is another opportunity for Erie to discover new and better ways to care for all of its patients.

Lynette Suarez is one Erie provider that fully understands the importance of looking outside the box for other methods of treatment.  Lynette is a Behavioral Therapist who devotes her time counseling Erie’s HIV/AIDS patients in the Lending Hands for Life Program, located at Erie Humboldt Park Health Center.  Since coming to Erie, Lynette began employing a technique called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) into her practice.  This technique is utilized as a different approach to treating the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Lynette has used this approach as an alternative method to care for her patients, many of whom are suffering from symptoms of PTSD.

EMDR is an information processing therapy that gives the brain the opportunity to reprocess a negative experience. Traumatic events can become locked in the brain with the original thoughts, smells, sounds and visuals.  EMDR allows patients to replace old, negative memories that were created at the time of the event with a new and more adaptive perception that helps to change the way the experience affects the patient. “The HIV diagnosis in itself can be traumatic and this technique has been useful in diminishing the negative feelings and thoughts affiliated with the diagnosis, allowing the patient to move forward in their lives without the thought of HIV constantly being at the forefront,” says Lynette.

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Beats this week: 

1) Good news out of Washington this week: the Department of Health and Human Services released their final guidelines for ‘meaningful use’ of electronic medical records (EMR) and the general consensus is that these guidelines are much more realistic than what the Obama Administration originally proposed. Example: the proposed guidelines required that 70% of prescriptions had to be transmitted electronically as one measure that would allow a doctor to receive a federal bonus; the new guidelines require 40%. Stay tuned to Beats Per Minute in the coming months as we talk more about meaningful use and what Erie is doing to achieve these new standards. 

2) First the Minute Clinic and now fresh produce? Looks like CVS and Walgreens stores are moving to become the premier grocery provider for communities in Chicago that are without grocery stores (often know as ‘food deserts) by offering expanded fresh produce sections. Cue the pros and cons discussion!

3) The details of the Cook County health system overhaul are continuing to unfold. New information emerged this week on some key moves to be made, including changing Oak Forest Hospital into a regional outpatient center, essentially discontinuing its inpatient services. Read more about the upcoming changes here.

4) A study was released this week that took a look at the impact children experience when their parents lose their jobs. The results were astonishing: almost one in three children completely lost insurance coverage when their parent was let go from their job. The rate is even higher when measuring children from low-income families. While most were then eligible for state-assisted insurance programs, many experienced gaps in coverage.

5) And finally last but most definitely not least – for the first time ever, the federal government has released a National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The announcement made by the Obama Administration yesterday was accompanied by kudos from HIV advocates around the country.

Beats this week:

1) The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation released its annual report on obesity this week and the results for Illinois are not great: over the last year the percentage of obese adults has risen to 26.6% percent, up one whole percentage point from the year before. This places Illinois 26th in the nation for adult obesity.

2) Today the New York Times homepage included a story about the crisis of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program across the country. Increased demand because of unemployment and lack of insurance is too much for a system that continues to see cuts in funding. In Florida, the ADAP program has closed its doors to new clients and has chosen not to start a waiting list.

3) A study released this week claims that the diabetes drug, Avandia, has a higher risk of causing heart risks, strokes and deaths in older people than other diabetes medications. The release of this study comes two weeks before the FDA’s hearings on the safety of the drug.

4) Happy end of the fiscal year! Today is the last day of the fiscal year for the state of Illinois and we still do not have a budget in place. According to news sources, at an early morning press conference tomorrow Governor Quinn will outline the cuts that will be included in the new fiscal year budget. We are still staying tuned.

5) A recent tracking poll done by Kaiser Health has found that health care reform law is picking up support. In the last month health care reform has improved its approval rating by 7 points, with 48% of Americans having a favorable view of the legislation.

Erie Family Health Center would like to thank everyone who came out to Paint the Town Red on February 24, 2010. The event was a huge success, raising over $50,000 for Erie’s HIV/AIDS program, Lending Hands for Life. A special thank you to all of our sponsors and Erie’s Junior Board.

For all who supported Erie in this event, this video is dedicated to you! Thank you!

Paint the Town Red ‘Thank You’ Video from Erie Family Health Center on Vimeo.

Beats this week:

1) A study published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that a $1 increase in the cost of soda (one liter) translated into significant health benefits, including 2.34 pounds in decreased weight and improvement in the risk of heart disease. This study was released just as New York begins a final push for a soda tax.

2) Did you know that today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It is a day to recognize the special risks HIV/AIDS poses for women and girls, and to raise awareness of the disease’s increasing impact on them. In 2007, more than a quarter of HIV those diagnosed with HIV were women.

3) President Obama has continued his push to pass health care reform in the upcoming weeks, keeping to his commitment of March 18. Congress, however, seems to be on a different page than the President, with many contentious issues, such as abortion, still left unresolved.

4) Today in Springfield, Governor Pat Quinn gave a speech on the current state budget crisis and his proposed FY11 budget. In sum, Quinn plans to use five strategies to ease the fiscal crisis: cutting spending, strategic borrowing, maximizing federal assistance, new jobs and increasing revenues. His speech included a plea for a 1% increase in income taxes in order to fund education at the current levels. 

5) Researchers have discovered that the HIV virus can hide in bone marrow cells and eventually turn into blood cells. This research explains why patients need to follow strict medication adherence, even if the virus is absent from their blood cells. Eventually, researchers believe that this finding will allow them to develop better medications to treat the disease in the blood and other parts of the body, including bone marrow.

Beats this week:

1) This week President Obama released the final details on the health care reform bill and urged Congress to give an up or down vote on the legislation. In remarks to a group of medical professionals, President Obama asked Congress to put aside politics and take action on behalf of the American people.

2) Politico confirmed from Senator Tom Harkin that Senate Dems have decided to use reconciliation as a means to pass health care reform.

3) Meanwhile, at the local level, big Chicago hospitals saw huge profit gains in 2009 while smaller hospitals continued to struggle.

4) Recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that certain segments of the U.S. population have a higher prevalence of HIV than exists in parts of Africa. For example: “More than 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C., are HIV-infected—a prevalence higher than that reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria, or Rwanda.”

5) Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this month that provides a breakdown by state of the federal dollars spent on public health. The report found that spending for public health has been flat and steady for the last five years and that the Midwest received the least amount of funding for disease prevention.

Erie Beats

Erie Family Health Center celebrated the 20th anniversary of our award winning HIV/AIDS program at Paint the Town Red held on Wednesday, February 24 at Martini Park. The evening included cocktails, a silent auction (including tickets to see Oprah, a weekend stay with spa treatments at The Trump International Hotel, a behind the scenes private tour at the Field Museum), a raffle for a trip to Mexico, live entertainment with the band Hey Jimmy, appetizers and a good time for all! Erie would like to thank everyone who helped make Paint the Town Red 2010 an incredible success! Due to the partnership of our Junior Board, sponsors, vendors, guests, entertainers, staff and volunteers – this year’s event raised nearly $50,000 to support Erie’s Lending Hands for Life program to provide even more care to those living with AIDS/HIV in Chicago.

View the video premiered at the event to learn more about Erie’s HIV/AIDS program:

Check out pictures from the evening:

As you all know, tonight is Paint the Town Red, Erie’s event for our HIV/AIDS program, Lending Hands for Life. Well over 200 people will be in attendance this evening! As such, Health Beats is on hiatus for this week but we will return next week!

Also, stay tuned tomorrow as we live blog the President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit! Tune in starting at 9:00am for a play by play of the summit!

In the meantime, here’s a little Paint the Town Red inspiration:

Erie Family Health Center: PAINT THE TOWN RED from Erie Family Health Center on Vimeo.

This month Erie Family Health Center will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of our nationally-recognized HIV/AIDS program, Lending Hands for Life. Erie will host an event called Paint the Town Red, which will celebrate the life of the program and the patients that have become part of the Erie family.

In the last 20 years, the progress in the treatment of HIV has been truly spectacular.  In the early 1980s, a diagnosis of HIV was a death sentence.  In 1987, the AZT drug was approved and using this alone dramatically slowed progression to AIDS.   There was great optimism for a while, but unfortunately, the progression to AIDS was delayed only for one or two years.  This medication, however, proved the concept that medications could be developed to treat the ravaging effects of HIV on the immune system.  Over the past two decades, there have been 25 medications developed to treat HIV and when used wisely they are remarkably effective at treating HIV.  Not all people with HIV/ADS have access to quality health care and medications in our country due to barriers such as the cost of care; that is why programs like Lending Hands for Life, where people are treated regardless of their ability to pay, are so important. When patients are connected to care at places like Erie, they have access to the life-saving medications they need.   Every few years, with pharmaceutical developments, the medications have become easier to take, with fewer side effects and even fewer pills. 

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