HOPE Mobile changes
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[December 29, 2011]
The HOPE Mobile -- Logan County's
health clinic on wheels -- will no longer make stops in five Logan
County communities in 2012 so that it can better everyone who seeks
its services. The new HOPE Mobile calendar reflects the need for
more time in Lincoln. It will also continue to make stops in
Atlanta, Chestnut, Elkhart, New Holland and Mount Pulaski.
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"Patient visits on the HOPE Mobile have slightly declined over the
last several years," said Kristin Lessen, director of Healthy
Community Partnership. "After a thorough review of 2011 statistics,
it was clear that regular stops to five of our communities would not
be the best use of resources."
In fact, only 15 people used the HOPE Mobile to see the nurse
practitioner in 2011 in Broadwell, Emden, Hartsburg, Latham and
Middletown combined. Of those, only four lived in the community
where the HOPE Mobile was visiting. Statistics show most of the
patients were driving from Lincoln to obtain services on the HOPE
Mobile when it was in those five communities, Lessen said.
The change will allow the HOPE Mobile to continue efforts to
attract more patients through its three-year federal Small Health
Care Provider Quality Improvement grant with the Health Resources
and Services Administration.
The grant has allowed the HOPE Mobile to not only see patients
for physicals and acute and chronic care visits, but also to help
patients with chronic diseases learn to manage them. The grant
included the addition of an electronic patient registry.
"The EPR is capable of alerting clinicians about their patients'
well-being, providing outreach to patients, summarizing the
patients' risk factors and generating health management reports,"
Lessen said. "The technology will enable clinicians and patients to
work together to understand the disease and how they can set goals
to better manage it and avoid complications and unnecessary health
care expenses."
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This falls in line with the Healthy Community Partnership's
strategic goal of addressing the health risk factors specific to
Logan County. Statistically, Logan County has a higher percentage of
diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attacks than both the state
and national averages. The percentage of overweight and obese
residents is also higher in Logan County than the state average.
"The partnership remains committed to its mission of improving
health, and this change will give us the opportunity to continue
seeking our vision of creating the healthiest community in America,"
Lessen said.
The HOPE Mobile is staffed by a Logan County Department of Public
Health nurse and led by Kat Tucholke, certified family nurse
practitioner, from Memorial Physician Service's Family Medical
Center. It is a component of the Healthy Communities Partnership, a
collaborative organization comprised of dozens of community
agencies. It is supported in part by the Abraham Lincoln Healthcare
Foundation.
[Text from file received from
Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital]
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