Archive for category: HPC News

By Lee Champion, RN, MSN, Nurse Clinic Director and Risk Manager

Medical assisting is an allied health profession whose practitioners’ function as members of the healthcare delivery team and perform administrative and clinical procedures. With their unique versatility, medical assistants (MA) are proving to be the allied health professional of choice for this decade and beyond. Medical assisting is one of the nation’s careers growing much faster than average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Medical Assistants at Health Partnership Clinic

Our MAs at HPC are multiskilled allied health professionals who perform a wide range of administrative and clinical roles with skill, dedication and loyalty. All of the MAs at HPC are cross trained and are an asset to our patients and providers with their vast knowledge in working in primary care.

They make a substantial contribution to the quality of health by promoting and maintaining cooperative and successful relationships between patients and providers and are vital members of the team. MAs are the first point of contact for patients, relatives and healthcare staff. A significant part of the MA’s daily routine revolves around supporting the healthcare team and facilitating the process smoothly.

We have MAs who are our subject matter experts in Pediatrics that work with pediatricians providing care to infants, children and teens under the age of 18. We also have MAs who specialize in Women’s Health. They participate in quality measures that are applicable to this specialty.

We are very grateful for our MAs at HPC:
Carolina Barraza, Mayra Lemus, NRCMA, Sandra Marquez, Traci McIntire and Cinthia Salazar

By: Whitney Venegoni, APRN, FNP-C, Family Nurse Practitioner

May is Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month and the perfect time to learn about allergies and asthma and how they are related as well as how to differentiate between allergies and COVID-19.

Allergy and Asthma Month is observed in May because for many that is when their symptoms peak since so many people are affected by environmental triggers. Allergies are an immune response in our bodies to different triggers in the environment such as mold, food, pollen and animal dander.

Allergies and asthma are related because many people who have asthma also have allergies and they can have some of the same triggers. With allergies it is more environmental triggers but with asthma those triggers expand to things like tobacco smoke and perfumes. Common symptoms of asthma include shortness of breath, wheezing and overall difficulty breathing.

Differentiating between allergies symptoms and COVID-19 symptoms is a little more straight forward than it seems. Allergy symptoms are started by irritants, so you are going to experience things like itchy, watery eyes, runny nose and sneezing. COVID-19 is an infection from a virus so you will see more systemic things like a fever, body aches, cough, and even nausea and diarrhea. With COVID-19 other body systems may be affected where with allergies it will be more limited to your eyes, ears and nose.

To learn more, watch our newest video:

Allergy and Asthma Awareness

By Wael S. Mourad, MD, MHCM, FAAFP, Chief Health Officer and Family Physician

As a community health center, Health Partnership Clinic (HPC) is a place where our patients find their medical home. We provide high quality preventive care for adults, help them with their chronic medical conditions and see to it that their kids are up to date on their immunizations and stay healthy. We help our patients get the imaging studies that they need whether it is an important CT scan or a critical MRI. Our patients get lab testing free of charge to them. We reach out through the patient portal to get them their results and to keep our patients engaged.

The reality is though, many of our patients do not have health insurance.

More than half to be more precise! What do we do when our patients need to see a specialist? That has been a barrier sometime too tough for our patients to overcome. It is a barrier which has indeed impacted the timeliness of care that our patients receive.

Now at Health Partnership, our patients have new hope to obtain access to the expertise of literally dozens and dozens of specialists and sub-specialists. This month, we partnered with RubiconMD, a national company that allows all of the providers at HPC to directly communicate with specialists. Through the platform provided by RubiconMD, we are able to send our questions to the specialty of our choice, asking questions and for guidance for the care of our patients.

Keeping our Patients Right Here

You see, the vast majority of our referrals are simply to ask for advice for the management of our patients. Instead of sending patients elsewhere, we keep our patients right here, and it is the expertise of the specialists that are brought in house. This is the kind of care that our patients expect. Patients love it when their provider says, “You know, let me talk to a colleague about your care and get some more ideas.” Patients feel special and that they are cared for.

Our providers have already started getting virtual consultations. The questions I have sent specialists, which may very well be in another part of the country, have been answered within a couple of hours. Just think of how difficult it would be otherwise to get that same clinical advice and guidance!

While the virtual consults bring to HPC a wealth of specialist expertise, let’s talk about what it does not do. First, it does not actually connect the patient with the specialist. Instead, it connects the provider with the specialist. This is actually a good thing! That way, our provider gets the information from the specialist first-hand and knows exactly how to carry out the plan of care. Second, the virtual consults are not a way for our patients to have procedures or surgeries performed by specialists. To get those done, they will definitely still need to be referred to the specialist to perform. But just think of how much the referral workload will go down, as referrals will be limited to those referrals that absolutely require the specialist’s attention.

We’re proud of our providers!

We are very proud of the “care” in “health care” that we provide. Our providers are indeed some of the most caring people I have ever seen. We are thrilled that the virtual consults have become a reality to better equip our team to provide more comprehensive care to our patients and the medical conditions that they carry. It is truly hero’s work.

John Smart

By John Smart, LSCSW, Behavioral Health Clinician

What is Autism?

Autism is formally defined as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a developmental disability characterized by social communication challenges and restricted or repetitive behaviors. Though they may go unrecognized, the symptoms of ASD begin in early childhood and persist into adulthood.

Having symptoms of autism does not mean someone necessarily has the diagnosis of ASD. The diagnosis of ASD is only made when the symptoms of autism cause significant impairment of social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. ASD now includes conditions previously classified as separate diagnoses: autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and Asperger syndrome.

What is Autism Awareness Month about?

Autism Awareness Month, also identified by the Autism Society as Autism Acceptance Month, is a time to recognize that “The experience of Autism is not one thing. It is many things. It’s dreams, talents, relationships, victories, hurdles, and everything in between.”

Autism is not an identity; it is an experience that may or may not deeply impact a person’s life. When we look beyond the diagnosis, difficulties, and barriers that may be experienced by a person with autism, we can see strengths, talents, interests, challenges, and aspirations – unifying characteristics of our human experience.

Additional Information

If you need help for yourself or a loved one regarding identifying symptoms or diagnosis of autism, speak to your primary care provider. You may also contact Behavioral Health services at Health Partnership Clinic for assistance with accessing resources. The Behavioral Health Team can be reached at 913-730-3664. For more information you may want to explore the Autism Society and the National Institute of Mental Health.

By Sharon Trongaard, RRT, MS, MPH, Clinic Director/Risk and Compliance Officer at Health Partnership Clinic

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to remind us of the importance of patient safety in everything we do at Health Partnership Clinic. This March, as we celebrate Patient Safety Awareness Week, our primary aim is to build awareness among our staff and patients. Bottom line, safety is everyone’s responsibility.

To learn more, watch our newest video:

Improving Patient Safety Begins With You

Here are some of the things we are doing to ensure each visit with us lowers the chance that you will be exposed to COVID-19:

• Our staff are screened daily for symptoms of COVID-19 and tested if they have symptoms. If they are positive, they isolate at home following the CDC guidelines
• Everyone working at or visiting our clinics must wear masks while on campus. Masks work to decrease the droplets that can carry COVID-19.
• Chairs are spaced apart in our lobby areas to provide less contact between patients and visitors.
• Patients are asked a series of questions when they arrive at our clinics to determine if they are at high risk of having COVID-19. If you do have some symptoms, we can perform rapid testing.
• We offer telemedicine visits if you would prefer to stay a home for your visit. If you are sick with COVID-19, a telemedicine visit allows you to discuss your care with a provider.
• Dividers are being installed in our lobbies to separate patients who are sick from patients who have appointments for physicals and preventative care.
• We are participating in the Federal program to distribute COVID-19 Home Testing Kits. You can pick some up at each of our clinic locations. Limit two per household member.

For updates on how we are addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit us at https://hpcks.org/coronavirus.