Welcome Ewa DuBois, APRN, FNP, Family Nurse Practitioner!

Ewa DuBoisHealth Partnership Clinic is proud to announce that Ewa DuBois, APRN, FNP, Family Nurse Practitioner, has joined our healthcare team in conjunction with a University of Kansas School of Nursing Fellowship program designed to support the healthcare needs of rural Kansans.

She sees patients in our Ottawa clinic Monday-Wednesday and Fridays in Paola. At both clinics, she applies more than eight years of experience working as a registered nurse in emergency, intensive care and surgical settings.

Ewa has a passion for helping patients experiencing chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension. By gaining trust through active listening, she educates her patients about how their own choices can help to lead to better health outcomes.

Raised near Anchorage, Alaska, Ewa’s appreciation of health care began by watching her mother, a registered nurse, serve patients in their community. Inspired, Ewa has earned Bachelor of Science degrees in both Nursing and Biology, and a Master of Science in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner. Besides Kansas, she has worked or studied in Tennessee, Florida, California and New York.

Living at Fort Leavenworth with her husband, a U.S. Army officer and former helicopter pilot, the couple and their four children, ages two to nine years, enjoy skiing and hiking and spending Friday nights making homemade pizzas together.

Please help us welcome Ewa to the Health Partnership family!

To schedule an appointment, please call our Ottawa location at 913-401-2750 or Paola at 913-294-9223.

Lunar New Year

Thao LeBy Thao Le, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

The holidays may be over, but in Vietnam, one of the biggest holidays (and my absolute favorite), Lunar New Year or Vietnamese New Year (Tết Nguyên Đán), will be celebrated on Wednesday, January 29. I said “on” but customs and activities begin several days before and last days after this traditional holiday.

“Tết” is short for “Tết Nguyên Đán” or “Tết Âm Lịch” – Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The word “Nguyên” means the beginning and “Đán” means the dawn. Tết marks the end of the year, and the beginning of a new one. It also means the start of the spring season in Vietnam. It’s almost like New Years!

In the days ahead of the holiday, it’s custom to clean the house. Symbolically, we remove the “bad things” and leave them behind with the old year. We then decorate the home to bring good luck in the new year. My parents like to decorate their home with flowers, a brand-new tear-off wall calendar, and red envelopes they hang from their house plants.

Traditionally, my parents will cook a feast that includes egg rolls, rice porridge, sticky rice, meat platter, salad and fried rice. Before we dig in, we light incense sticks and pray to our ancestors. We place the food-filled plates on the mantle, where pictures of my deceased grandparents are displayed. This invites them to celebrate the holiday with us and pray for luck in the upcoming year. Once the incense sticks burn out, we eat!

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year Lunar New Year

One of the traditional dishes of Tết is New Year’s cake, or bánh tét, which is made from glutinous rice filled with mung bean and pork. It is wrapped in banana leaf, then boiled. Once it is cooked, the banana leaf is removed and the bánh is sliced into wheels. My parents and I prefer to fry the cakes after they’re sliced to give them a crunchy texture!

Lunar New Year

During the holiday, it’s custom to gift children and younger adults red envelopes filled with money. The red color symbolizes good luck and prosperity and typically contains 2-dollar bills. These bills should be crisp and clean. Red envelopes can be gifted to adults too, not just children. I have three sisters (two older, and one younger), and usually my oldest sister gifts the rest of us money, and I gift my younger sister money. It’s a good thing I only have one younger sibling!

Lunar New Year

Another traditional new year activity is a gambling game called bầu cua tôm cá which translates to gourd, crab, shrimp, fish. It’s played with three dice, and each player wagers on what image the dices will land on. Often times the money received from red envelopes are used to wager!

Lunar New Year

With every Lunar New Year brings the next animal on the zodiac. There are a total of 12 zodiac signs, and each person’s birth year correlates with an animal and its associated personality traits. 2025 will be the year of the snake!

Lunar New Year

I hope this upcoming year brings all of you peace and prosperity.

Happy New Year, or Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

Tips to Make Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Thao LeBy Thao Le, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

With every new year comes new resolutions. Whether it’s getting in shape, traveling more, or quitting smoking, every new year gives us an opportunity to turn the page and start fresh. While coming up with a New Year’s resolution can be difficult, it can sometimes be just as difficult to maintain the resolution over a period of time. This is known as a New Year’s resolution “slump,” and according to a 2022 study by Planet Fitness, it takes an individual a mere average of 41 days to give up on their resolution. Fortunately, there are tips to help make sure your resolution sticks:

  • Set “SMART” goals
  • Stick to just picking one goal to prevent feeling overwhelmed
  • Write out a detailed plan
  • Stay motivated by tracking progress
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for support from friends and family
  • Give habits time to make them stick
  • Reward yourself

In the United States, improving well-being is the most popular New Year’s resolution for the year 2025, while improving fitness was the most popular resolution the year 2024. Whatever your goal may be – make it happen and let’s start off the new year with a bang!

Tips to Make Your New Year's Resolution Stick

Kick off the new year and join the Snowflake Streak!

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Raising Dollars, Awareness for Uninsured Neighbors

Kick off the new year and join the Snowflake Streak!On Saturday morning, Jan. 25, 2025, teams and individuals will don their winter hats and gloves to walk in Health Partnership Clinic’s first annual Snowflake Streak in Olathe, Kan. The peer-to-peer fundraising walk—which raises money for our low income and uninsured children and adults—will be held at the Olathe Community Center/Stagecoach Park. Walkers will enjoy pre and post walk activities including a short program, brisk walk around the 0.97-mile walking trail loop and breakfast. Joe Lauria, evening news meteorologist for FOX4, will serve as the event’s emcee.

The event goal is to raise $50,000. We invite area companies, vendors, schools, civic and church groups and the overall community to participate by being a sponsor, forming a team or both. To date, we have 23 teams and have raised more than $23,000! To learn how, visit us at hpcks.org/snowflake.

A heartfelt thank you to the following businesses who are supporting Snowflake Streak: Presenting-AdventHealth; Wintry-City of Olathe; Cozy Community-Enterprise Bank, Entrepreneurs Alliance, Olathe Health-Part of The University of Kansas Health System and The Purple Guys; Hot Cocoa and Coffee Bar-Blue Gurus and Frosty-Davidson Promotional, Farmers Bank of KC and Olathe Noon Optimists Club.

Join Snowflake Streak on 1-25-25

HOW IT WORKS?

You can walk as an individual, become a team captain and recruit others to be on your team, or you can join a team. There are individual incentives and team prizes, activities, breakfast after the walk, including a hot chocolate and coffee bar.

Team registration—which can be one person or more—is open until Thursday, Jan. 16. Although there is no fee to walk, we encourage individuals to raise $100 which will underwrite the cost of providing a rapid RSV, strep or flu test for two uninsured children.

Those raising $100 will receive a Snowflake Streak t-shirt. There are also other incentives including a hot/cold tumbler set, blanket shawl, fleece jacket, Garmin Activity Tracker, etc. The more you raise, the more incentives you earn! There will be prizes for Best Dressed Team and Individual Adult and Child, Top Fundraising and Most Team Members.

Come kick off the new year with a brisk walk for your own health and for others! To learn more about the walk or how to sponsor, click on the QR Code below.

2025 Snowflake Streak QR Code

Health Partnership Clinic Holiday Hours Update

Health Partnership Clinic Holiday Hours UpdateHPC will observe the following holiday hours:

  • Thursday, November 28, closed
  • Friday, November 29, closed
  • Tuesday, December 24, close at noon
  • Wednesday, December 25, closed
  • Tuesday, December 31, close at 3 pm
  • Wednesday, January 1, closed

 

The Entrepreneurs Alliance visits clinic; donates to Snowflake Streak Walk

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Health Partnership Clinic recently hosted the Entrepreneurs Alliance of Kansas City at our Olathe clinic. Amy Falk, the clinic’s CEO and I gave a presentation about what we do at HPC and the impact we are making. Members of the Alliance presented a $1,000 check to support our upcoming Snowflake Streak event as a Cozy Community Sponsor. The Snowflake Streak is a peer-to-peer fundraising event that will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at the Olathe Community Center. All funds raised will help support our low income and uninsured neighbors in Johnson, Miami and Franklin Counties.

The Entrepreneurs Alliance visits clinic; donates to Snowflake Streak Walk The Entrepreneurs Alliance visits clinic; donates to Snowflake Streak Walk

The Entrepreneurs Alliance is a group of entrepreneurs and professionals who enjoy speaking into and supporting the process and ideas behind building successful businesses. The group’s goal is to connect and educate within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in and around Kansas City.

We are very grateful to the Alliance members and to Jason Terry with Blue Gurus, who has provided website and blog support for the clinic for the last seven years, for introducing us to the group.

The Entrepreneurs Alliance visits clinic; donates to Snowflake Streak Walk The Entrepreneurs Alliance visits clinic; donates to Snowflake Streak Walk

Sponsorships are still being accepted and teams are forming.

To learn more about the Snowflake Streak, hpcks.org/snowflake/ or call Catherine Rice at 913-730-3680.

Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic!

Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic! Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic!

As another year draws to an end, we would like to say THANK YOU to our patients who have entrusted us with their care. We are grateful to all the patients who choose HPC for their healthcare needs. It is an honor to serve our patients and their families.

To our partners and supporters, THANK YOU for helping us live our mission to provide quality, affordable and accessible health care to those who need our help the most. We are proud to serve the people of Johnson, Franklin and Miami Counties.

To our staff, we say THANK YOU for their tireless dedication and commitment to making a difference in the lives of our patients.

From everyone at Health Partnership Clinic, we wish our partners, donors and community a very Happy Holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic! Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic! Happy Holidays from Health Partnership Clinic!

National Handwashing Awareness Week – December 1-7

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Personal hygiene begins and ends with our hands

National Handwashing Awareness Week – December 1-7Healthy hands are happy hands so be sure to keep hands clean to prevent viruses from spreading. It’s one of those everyday precautions besides covering your coughs and sneezes and avoiding close contact when you are feeling unwell.

At Health Partnership Clinic, we follow several proactive steps to ensure the safety of our staff and patients. At the top of the list is frequent handwashing. At home, it is equally important. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides several useful tips and reminders to keep you and your family healthy.

Remember, handwashing is one of the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting sick—that goes for COVID, the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and colds!

According to the CDC,
handwashing can prevent one in three diarrhea-related illnesses
and one in five infections, including the flu.

How Germs Spread

Washing hands can keep you healthy and prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrheal infections from one person to the next. Germs can spread from other people or surfaces when you:

  • Touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
  • Prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands
  • Touch a contaminated surface or objects
  • Blow your nose, cough, or sneeze into hands and then touch other people’s hands or common objects

Did you know… A typical human sneeze exits the body at about 200 miles per hour and emits around 40,000 droplets into the air. Wow!

Key Times to Wash Hands

You can help yourself and your loved ones stay healthy by washing your hands often, especially during these key times when you are likely to get and spread germs:

  • Before, during, and after preparing food
  • Before eating food
  • Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea
  • Before and after treating a cut or wound
  • After using the toilet

Did you know… The CDC reports that only 31 percent of men and 65 percent of women washed their hands after using a public restroom. Yuck!

  • After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
  • After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
  • After handling pet food or pet treats
  • After touching garbage

It is also recommended that you should clean hands:

  • After you have been in a public place and touched an item or surface that may be frequently touched by other people, such as door handles, tables, gas pumps, shopping carts, or electronic cashier registers/screens, etc.
  • Before touching your eyes, nose, or mouth because that’s how germs enter our bodies.

Follow Five Steps to Wash Your Hands the Right Way

Washing your hands is easy, and it’s one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one person to another and throughout an entire community—from your home and workplace to childcare facilities and hospitals and clinics.

Follow these five steps every time.

  1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
  2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
  3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
  4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
  5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations. If soap and water are not readily available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. You can tell if the sanitizer contains at least 60 percent alcohol by looking at the product label. Remember to keep hand sanitizer out of reach of young children and supervise their use. Swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizer can cause alcohol poisoning.

Get the whole family involved in handwashing. HPC has developed an easy-to-follow tip sheet for children. Check it out!

HPC Handwashing Tips (English) HPC Handwashing Tips (Spanish)

Join Snowflake Streak on 1-25-25

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Winter Walk to Raise Critical Dollars, Awareness of our Uninsured Neighbors

Join Snowflake Streak on 1-25-25On Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, teams and individuals will don their winter hats and gloves to walk in Health Partnership Clinic’s first annual Snowflake Streak in Olathe, Kan. The peer-to-peer fundraising walk will be held at the Olathe Community Center/Stagecoach Park. Walkers will enjoy pre and post walk activities including a short program, brisk walk around the 0.97-mile walking trail loop and breakfast. Joe Lauria, evening news meteorologist for FOX4, will serve as the event’s emcee.

The Snowflake Streak is a fun way to engage the community, strengthen donor relationships, build awareness around our mission and boost revenue. Our goal is to bring together caring individuals, families and area businesses who want to help neighbors who are struggling physically, mentally and financially. The money raised will help keep low income and uninsured children and adults healthy and well in our community.

The event goal is to raise $50,000. We invite area companies, vendors, schools, civic and church groups and the overall community to participate by being a sponsor, forming a team or both. Sponsors currently include Olathe Health, now part of the University of Kansas Health System, Olathe Kansas and Blue Gurus. To learn more, scan the QR Code below!

HOW IT WORKS?

Snowflake Streak 2024 QR CodeYou can walk as an individual, become a team captain and recruit others to be on your team, or you can join a team. There are individual incentives and team prizes, activities, breakfast after the walk, including a hot chocolate and coffee bar.

Team registration—which can be one person or more—is open until Thursday, Jan. 16. Although there is no fee to walk, we encourage individuals to raise $100 which will underwrite the cost of providing a rapid RSV, strep or flu test for two uninsured children. Those raising $100 will receive a Snowflake Streak t-shirt.

There are also other incentives including a hot/cold tumbler set, blanket shawl, fleece jacket, Garmin Activity Tracker, etc. The more you raise, the more incentives you earn! There will be prizes for Best Dressed Team and Individual Adult and Child, Top Fundraising and Most Team Members.

The Snowflake Streak is a fun way the community and area businesses can bring together their families, employees and clients and give back and learn more about the clinic’s mission of providing quality, affordable and accessible medical, dental and behavioral health care. We are often a ‘best kept secret’ and we hope more people will engage in our mission and share our impact.

The Snowflake Streak Committee includes Cara Coleman, The Recovery Village Kansas City; Stephanie Heisler, Walmart; Abigail Lano, MPH, Marketing Communications Consultant; Emily Latta, Truity Credit Union; Bill Schafer, Olathe Noon Optimist Club; James Terrones, HPC Board; and Jason Terry, Blue Gurus. Representing HPC includes Thao Le, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, Behavioral Health; David Merschbrock, Administration, and Nikki Balden, Administration. The fundraising event is led by our Marketing and Development team members Catherine Rice, Tobi Buchanan and Debbie Sparks.

If you are Interested in forming a team, walking or sponsoring the Snowflake Streak, contact Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing and Outreach, at crice@hpcks.org or 913-730-3680.

To learn more visit: https://hpcks.org/snowflake/.

Clinic Now Accepting Appointments for Marketplace Enrollment

Diana ZamoraBy Diana Zamora, Enrollment Specialist at Health Partnership Clinic

The Health Insurance Marketplace (also known as the “Marketplace” or “exchange”) opens Friday, Nov. 1 and will close Wednesday, Jan. 15. The Marketplace provides health plan shopping and enrollment services through websites, call centers and in-person help.

At HPC, we offer free, in-person help with the health insurance application. We are now scheduling appointments by calling 913-730-3653. A certified application counselor is available to help callers in English or Spanish.

To make an appointment, call 913-730-3653.

Hurry! Appointments are limited.

To learn more, visit hpcks.org/patient-resources/insurance-other-services.