2. Active participation and support by all elements of the community and provision for the community to share in nonmedical decisions. 3. Provision of a broad range of health services of high quality which are equally accessible to all people. 4. Utilization of the health care team approach, including full use of community outreach workers. 5. Defined arrangements for appropriate supportive and consultative services that are convenient and that have coordination to ensure continuity of care. 6. Financial support from a variety of sources, with integration of all funds, and with a goal of obtaining additional or alternative funds so that the program can become self-sustaining as soon as possible. 7. Hospital staff privileges for physicians working in community health programs. 8. Acceptable and available transportation services. RECOMMENDATIONS The Council on Medical Service and its Committee on Community Health Care have formulated the following recommendations which are offered in an effort to improve the effectiveness of community health programs in relating to the total community and its health needs. The first group of recommendations pertains to suggested activities for initiation by the medical profession. The second set of recommendations concerns activities that, although initiated by others, deserve physician support. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTIVITY BY THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 1. Physicians, both as individuals and as members of medical societies, should actively participate in the planning, development, implementation, and operation of health programs at the community level, particularly in areas where there is a shortage of medical and health services. Medical societies are urged to establish committees that can provide technical advice and assistance to providers and community residents who are involved in developing community health programs. 2. Physicians should use all means at their disposal to ensure that all people are afforded equal access to adequate medical and health care. 3. The medical profession at all levels should actively support public and private programs to eliminate factors that are harmful to health, such as lead poisoning, malnutrition, drug abuse, poor housing, poor sanitation including improper sewage and solid waste disposal, the use of unsafe pesticides, and air and water pollution. 4. The medical profession should be actively involved in and support health planning that will promote the development of programs to meet the specific health needs of communities. They should support activities that will avoid the unnecessary duplication of facilities and services and wasteful expenditure of financial and manpower resources. These planning efforts should seek maximum utilization of exisiting health programs and the availability of adequate transportation systems. 31-151 O 74 Pt. 1 - 37 5. The medical profession at all levels should assist in establishing and expanding mechanisms that will allow for continuing communication and dialogue with community residents. Such mechanisms should also provide a meaningful role for the public in the planning, development, and operation of medical and health programs that will affect them. 6. The medical profession should strongly support general health education programs in the schools, at home, and in mass media to increase the awareness of what constitutes good health in order for people to make optimal use of the health delivery system. General health education programs should include information concerning proper utilization of health resources, emphasizing the appropriate and expanding roles of the various members of the health care team. 7. The medical profession should continue to provide support for programs intended to help solve health manpower shortages by (a) increasing the output of medical schools and related health education programs, (b) mobilizing inactive trained personnel and providing refresher courses to update their knowledge, (c) maximizing the productivity of all types of health manpower through realignment of tasks and application of new technology, and (d) maintaining experimentation with new types of health manpower. 8. The medical profession, in cooperation with communities and government, should assist in developing incentive programs that will attract physicians and other health personnel to locate in rural and urban areas of need. 9. Practicing physicians should consider the feasibility of utilizing the health care team approach through the delegation of appropriate tasks to qualified health personnel and help educate their patients to recognize that some personal health services can be delivered by personnel other than physicians. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTIVITIES THAT SHOULD BE 10. The medical profession should support public and private efforts that will help people escape from poverty and near-poverty, including job training and placement, and development of an adequate and sustaining income program with built-in work incentives that will encourage poor people to become self-sufficient. The costs of attaining such sociological goals should not be factored into the costs of medical care. 11. Medical schools and other schools of the various health professions should be urged to include suitable sources and practical experience in community health programs as a part of their curricula. This training would provide a means of gaining a better understanding of the social, psychological, economic, and cultural needs of patients and the interrelationships of the various health disciplines. 12. The federal government should be encouraged to consolidate all federal health programs under one department that has line authority and responsibility for program development, implementation, and operation. 13. The federal government should be encouraged to provide long-range approval and multiple-year funding for research and demonstration health programs in order to provide assurance of continuity of operation which will assist in recruitment and retention of top quality professional staff. 14. The federal government should be encouraged to offer increased incentives and assistance to provide employers who establish programs to employ poor people, with company-sponsored job training, job placement, and day care centers in order to make more people self-sufficient. community health programs visited by task force february 1969 through september 1971 The narratives presented in this section contain information that was accurately recorded at the time of the site visits by the Task Force. It is recognized, however, that vital changes in the operation and sponsorship of some of these community health programs may have occurred in the time that elapsed from the time of the site visits to the publication of these narratives. The community health programs are presented in alphabetical order by city location instead of by chronological order of site visits. PROJECT AND LOCATION Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Southside Comprehensive Health Center Baltimore, Maryland: East Baltimore Medical Plan Boston, Massachusetts: Bunker Hill Health Center Harvard Community Health Plan Health, Incorporated Tufts-Columbia Point Health Center Bronx, New York: Hunts Point Multi-Service Center Corporation Health Center Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Health Center Chicago, Illinois: Illinois Masonic Medical Center Martin Luther King Neighborhood Health Center Columbia, Maryland: Columbia Medical Plan Denver, Colorado: Denver Neighborhood Health Program Estancia, New Mexico: Hope Medical Center Fresno County, California: Fresno County Medical Society-Firebaugh and Mendota Health Care Jacksonville, Florida: East Jacksonville Neighborhood Health Center King City, California: King City Health Center Lafayette County, Florida: Lafayette County Health Center Los Angeles, California: Watts South Central Multipurpose Health Services Center Miami, Florida: University of Miami Projects New York City, New York: Brooklyn-Cumberland Medical Center East Harlem Triangle Community Health Project Phoenix, Arizona: Samaritan Health Service Surgicenter San Francisco, California: Mission Neighborhood Health Center Santa Fe, New Mexico: Presbyterian Medical Services Remote Area Health Project Wakita, Oklahoma: Wakita Health Center Washington, District of Columbia: Upper Cardozo Health Center George Washington University Medical Center Delivery System ATLANTA SOUTHSIDE COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CENTER The Atlanta Southside Comprehensive Health Center is funded by an Office of Economic Opportunity grant. The Fulton County Medical Society is the administrating agency, and it subcontracts the authority and responsibility for operating the Center to the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health of Emory University. The director of the Center reports to that department. The policy-making board for the Center initially had been the Emory University Board of Directors; however, the community advisory group has become the Board of Directors of the community health corporation. The Center was founded to provide higher quality comprehensive health care to the residents of the Price area, which is a concentrated poverty area. |