Community Benefit Challenges
Challenge #1:
To reach a growing and diverse service area, offering preventative
screenings, educational programs and other
wellness services.
Our response:
O ur award-winning Health Awareness Center (HAC) has helped thousands of people adopt healthier lifestyles through 200 health education and lifestyle management programs. It serves more than 30,000 adult clients per year.
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We send our mobile HAC (wellness van) to community events, schools, churches, and businesses in underserved neighborhoods. Staff provides cancer, stroke, blood sugar, audiology and other health screenings and distributes important health information to more than 4,000 clients annually. CentraState’s Student Health Awareness Center (SHAC) educates about 22,000 children annually with more than 60 programs that bring health education to life. SHAC also provides state-approved professional development programs for nurses and other school professionals.
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CentraState’s comprehensive Novo Nordisk Diabetes Center, recognized by the American Diabetes Association, teaches people to manage all aspects of their disease through a one-on-one assessment, 10 hours of class time, follow-up visits, and other programs.
The combined benefit to the community of these health promotion services for which no compensation was received was more than $5.5-million over the past five years. (See chart on page 2.)
Challenge #2:
Increasing the availability of general practitioners in our service area, as evidenced by the non-emergent, primary care often provided through our Emergency Department.
Our response:
I n 2005, CentraState Medical Center became a teaching hospital through a clinical affiliation with University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Our Family Medicine Residency Program accepts six new residents each year for a total of 18. These residents are on site daily providing multidisciplinary care, and over time we expect about half of them to open their own primary care practices in our communities.
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The Family Medicine Residency Program
is based at CentraState’s Family
Medicine Center, which was upgraded
and remodeled in 2005 and now operates as a fully automated “paperless
office.” The Family
Medicine Center provides state-of-the-art outpatient primary medical
care to the community —including uninsured, “under-insured,” and
patients using Medicaid—and is certified as a HealthStart Medicaid
provider.
The combined benefit to the community for these family medicine services was more than $4.3-million during 2001-05. (See chart on page 2.)
Challenge #3:
Providing quality healthcare while absorbing an increasing level of charity care.
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A t the heart of our mission is the compassionate delivery of quality healthcare. No patient is turned away because of an inability to pay for required services. Officials estimate that there are more than 1.4-million uninsured residents in New Jersey and thousands more who are under-insured. Meanwhile, reimbursements for these charity patients from federal and state health programs continue to decline.
Our response:
C entraState adopted formal policies to help eligible patients through a combination of measures from sliding scale fees and free services to discounts and subsidies. We also refrain from harsh collection practices and treat patients with respect. Further, we provide health and wellness programs aimed at prevention and engaging people in their own care, especially through our Health Awareness Center.
The benefit to the community of charity care by CentraState exceeded $29-million over the past five years. (See chart on page 2.)
